Unexpected
by RushtonLane
Summary: Steve never expected his first time would effect his life twenty years later. Sometimes the unexpected is the best thing to ever happen to you. Set during Season 4 before episode 19. No spoilers for the show. Original female character. Appearances of all characters from the show.
1. Chapter 1

It was a slow day for the Five-0 team. They'd wrapped up a case over the weekend which meant a day of paperwork unless a new case came their way. Steve was contemplating his lunch choices when someone knocked on his door. Looking up he saw a uniform officer standing next to a young woman.

"Commander, this young lady has requested a meeting with you. Is now a good time?" the office asked.

"Sure. As good as time as any. Come on in," Steve replied.

The uni waved the young woman into the office then stepped out and left the offices.

Steve gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk as he hastily tidied the papers on the surface. "Please sit down. What can I do for you?"

When the girl didn't respond, Steve looked up from his task, "Would you like to sit?" he repeated, a little annoyed she hadn't answered.

The young girl smiled and took the offered seat. As she settled herself, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and it was then Steve noticed her hearing aides.

"Thank you for seeing me on short notice. I need to tell you a couple of things. First, my name is Arianna. Second, I'm deaf. I read lips, but I need to ask you to look directly at me and to enunciate," she told him as she spoke and signed at the same time.

Steve coughed to cover his embarrassment. "Of course. Sorry," he said as he sat down.

"Nothing to be sorry about. You didn't know," she told him, giving him a shy smile, which Steve found familiar, but couldn't place. "Mr. McGarret, I don't want to take much of your time, but I'm hoping you can answer a question for me."

Steve was intrigued. "I will if I can, but you should know I have a whole team that can help you if you're in trouble."

"This is actually a personal matter, Sir," Arianna replied.

"Personal? I'm not sure if I understand," Steve said perplexed.

Arianna sighed, "This isn't easy, but here's the whole story. My mother was Jenny Feldman. She passed away two months ago. I was going through her legal documents and I came across these." Reaching into her bag, she pulled out three pieces of paper easily recognizable as Hawaiian birth certificates.

Steve couldn't help the question that came out, "Why do you have three birth certificates? Most places need just a copy for their files."

Arianna gave him a sardonic look. "That's the thousand dollar question. More troubling is that they're not identical." Handing him the first one, she continued, "These all have my name on them, but that one has a Craig Duncan listed as my father. The man in question says it's impossible as he has never been with a woman and wasn't that more information than I needed. This one," she paused, giving him the second one, "has father listed as unknown. The third one," she passed that to him as well, "has you listed as my father. Now I've always went by Arianna McGarrett but with this new information, I'm beginning to wonder."

Steve stared at the papers and the Washington driver's license she'd placed in his hand. He looked up to the young woman and back down at the certificates again. He vaguely wondered if this is what an alternate universe would feel like. He looked up again to study the her more closely. Her voice pulled him out of his perusal.

"Mr. McGarrett, are you okay?" Arianna asked, concerned she'd broken the man; he looked liked he was about ready to pass out.

"Um, yeah. I just, uh," Steve managed to get out. Noting the birth date listed on all three documents was the same, he did some quick calculations. February conception. Ah, hell. Jenny's birthday. "Uh, you don't mind if I uh," he broke off waving at the computer in a manner Danny would've been proud of.

The tilt of her head told him he wasn't communicating effectively so he tried again, "I would like to check, see if…" Damn maybe he was as bad at mammal to mammal communications as Danny thought. He couldn't seem to get the words out either from embarrassment, ingrained lack of trust or nerves he wasn't positive. None of his training had even come close to preparing him for this type of situation.

Arianna smiled and it took his breath away, it was his dad's smile. Was he seeing what he wanted to see?

"I would encourage you to check my story. That's why I handed you my license." Reaching into her bag again, she pulled out another card. "Here's Mom's last license if you want it, Mr. McGarrett."

He took the proffered card, staring down at the picture. The photo, typically bad, showed an older version of the Jenny he remembered. Not everyone remembers their first love, but Steve did. Out of everything that happened in those twelve months, Steve remembered the look on Jenny's face as they became each other's first. Bringing himself back to the present with a shake, he figured he was probably worrying Arianna again, so he typed the necessary codes into the computer to pull up the information he needed and quickly set it to search.

Arianna sat quietly, waiting for him to finish. He liked that, no idle chit chat. A minute later, the information was filling the screen. He read it twice before directing his attention back to the girl in front of him. Running his hand across his chin, he took a deep breath, "Well, considering the circumstances, you should probably call me Steve."

"Um, wow. Not the answer I was expecting," Arianna said, obviously shocked.

"What answer were you expecting?" he asked jokingly, trying to cover the sudden onset of nerves.

"Well, given the track record, I figured you'd flat out deny it and I'd be back at square one," she stated, shrugging. "I don't know what to do now. What circumstances are you referring to?"

Steve couldn't help but smile. The girl was honest and direct. He took a moment to study the young lady again. She was tall, easily 5' 10" or more by the way she'd towered over the escorting officer. She was thin, but not skinny. If she weighed one twenty-five, he'd be surprised but she had good muscular development. Her long hair was a bit darker than his, more of the color of Jenny's if he remembered correctly. Her chin and brow reminded him of Doris's. Her eyes, though, they were the clincher. They were the exact same ones that stared back at him from the bathroom mirror. He couldn't help but widen his grin when he realized she'd been studying him just as intently.

"Well, the timing is right and let's just say you have some distinctive McGarrett features. If we want to be sure, we'll need a DNA test," Steve told her.

"That makes sense, if we want to pursue this," Arianna agreed.

Steve cocked his head, "You don't want to know for sure?"

Arianna hesitated. "To be honest, this is a bit much."

"Fair enough," Steve nodded. "I know someone who will keep this discreet if that's an issue."

Arianna looked relieved. "I can't say I'm comfortable having strangers knowing about my personal life. Besides, if we are, you know, related, how do we know we'll… I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd like to keep this between us until we know for sure and if we are, until we're more comfortable with each other. That is if you want to even try….if you even… "

Steve cut her off, "Arianna, I do want to know for sure if I'm your father, but regardless of the out come, I want to get to know you. Your mother was special to me and I'd still like to get to know her daughter."

"Okay. I'd like that too. Where do we go from here?" she responded, smiling again.

"Well, let me make a phone call and we should be able to get the testing started today. It'll take a couple of days for the results," Steve told her. He waited until she nodded her consent before he picked up his phone to call Max.

Making the arrangements, Steve hung up, turning back to Arianna. "Max can take us right now. How 'bout we go get that done and I'll buy you some lunch?"

"I'd like that," she said, her nervousness showing in her smile.

"It'll be fine, no matter what," Steve assured her as he stood up to escort her out of his office.

Catching Chin and Catherine's eyes as he guided Arianna towards the outer doors, he informed them, "Hey, I've got a couple of errands and then I'm going to grab lunch. Should be back in a couple of hours. Call if you need me." Not giving them a chance to reply he quickly showed Arianna the way out.

The whole team had noticed the young woman being escorted to Steve's office. Kono, Chin and Catherine had been going over some old crime scene photos at the tech table when Steve's visitor arrived. Catherine made an abortive move towards the boss's office, stopping when the door was firmly shut at the HPD officer's departure.

"Who's that?" she asked her two colleagues.

"Not a clue," Chin said. Kono shrugged.

"Steve'll introduce us if necessary, right?" Catherine said sounding unsure. Her teammates shot her concerned looks at the jealousy in the woman's tone, but didn't acknowledge her statement. The girl was obviously too young for Steve and they knew Steve would never cheat on her so the jealousy was unfounded.

Danny had watched the whole incident from his office. Even from where he sat, he could read Catherine's unease at Steve's unexpected visitor. He was continuously amazed at the woman's contradictory vibes and actions. Directing his attention back to Steve's office, he took note of the action and since the man hadn't closed the blinds, he had a fairly decent view of it's occupants. He found himself stunned as the visitor started using sign language. He was a bit rusty with interpretation, but he unashamedly followed the conversation from the young woman's perspective. He only felt a smidgen of guilt when the conversation turned personal. Trust his partner to get himself in trouble sitting in his office. Danny raised a hand in acknowledgement of Steve's pronouncement, knowing full well the big guy would eventually tell him all that was going on.

They rode in silence to the M.E.'s office, not necessarily because any conversation would have been difficult, but more because both of them were wrapped up in their own thoughts.

The first time Steve had thought about Jenny in years was ironically last Halloween. He'd been defending his seduction techniques to Catherine. When he'd mentioned that Jenny had fallen for his tricks, Cath had called her a slut. Man, what would Cath say now when she finds out about Arianna. He was strangely okay with the girl's request to keep things between them for the time being. He had enough upheaval going on with the rest of his family. He didn't need to add the revelation of a long lost daughter to the mix.

Pulling up in front of the M.E. office building, Steve cut the engine and tapped Arianna on the shoulder to get her attention. "I should warn you. Max is a bit, eccentric, for lack of a better word."

"Duly noted," came the reply.

Working their way to Max's office, they found the quirky man sitting behind his desk doing paperwork.

"Max, this is Arianna, Arianna, this is Max," Steve introduced them.

"I hope this is not going to become a habit for you Commander," Max said pointedly.

"A habit, Max?" Steve questioned, confused.

"This continued search for relatives you seem to be on," Max replied, "but given the physical similarities, this one has a higher probability of coming back positive." Turning to some instruments on a nearby tray, he picked up a sterile packaged swab. Facing the pair again, he continued, "Are we looking for a sibling connection again?"

Airanna sure hoped Steve knew what the man was talking about because she didn't have a clue.

"No, Max, this time it's a parental connection," Steve said. When all he got from Max was a baffled expression he kept going, "We want to know if Arianna is my daughter."

"Oh, well in that case, who wants to go first?," Max asked.

Steve glanced at the young woman standing next to him. "Are you ready for this?"

"Yes. Let's find out," she affirmed.

The whole process lasted less than five minutes.

"So how long before we'll know, Max?" Steve inquired.

"I'll submit the samples immediately. You should have the results in three to five days," Max declared.

Steve clapped the shorter man on the the shoulder. "Mahalo, Max."

"Yes, thank you, Dr. Bergman," Arianna added.

"My pleasure," Max claimed. "I'll call you when the results come in."

Steve couldn't help but notice the shudder from his companion as they exited the building. He grabbed ahold of her arm, turning her to face him. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm still getting use to the warmth. I spent the last six years on the mainland, Seattle mostly. I like the way the sun sinks into your bones," she assured him.

Steve couldn't help putting an arm around her shoulders to give her a brief squeeze. "Let's get some lunch. Where would you like to go?"

Arianna thought for a moment. "Anything sounds good, except for peanuts. I'm allergic."

"So was your mother," Steve whispered.

"Yeah, she was," she affirmed.

Gathering himself, Steve grinned, "How do you feel about loco moco?"

They walked to a nearby diner that he promised her would have the best loco moco she'd ever had. He waited until they'd been served before asking all the questions he had swirling around in his head.

Arianna watched as the man in front of her squirmed in his seat. She'd bet her right arm this was the first time the former SEAL had ever been uncomfortable. Yes, she'd done her homework before going to see the man. She'd wanted to know about the man that might be her father. She knew he had questions, but she had questions of her own so she decided to let him off the hook hoping for reciprocity. "Go ahead, ask away. No holds bar."

Steve didn't bother to squelch the swell of pride he felt at her insight. In his mind there was no doubt about their blood relationship. He took on her challenge. "So, your mom. What happened?"

"Tough questions first, huh. There was an accident on the shooting range. The guy next to her was from Rigby, Idaho. He'd never fired an assault rifle before. They warned him the F2000 had a big kick and would pull up. He couldn't control the kick. The bullet ricocheted off the over hang and hit her in the head."

Steve's disbelief flashed across his face. If Danny'd been there, he was sure there'd be a new name for this face. "Oh, man. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It was instantaneous and unusual. Something she would've grooved on."

Steve chuckled, "She did like the odd. Maybe that's why she liked me. What about your grandparents?"

"They've been gone since I was fourteen. That's when we moved to Seattle. Mom kept the house here, rented it out with a caretaker. I can get into it on Friday."

Surprised, Steve blurted, "So you're moving to Hawaii?"

"Wow, do you ever have expressional faces! Yeah, I've moved to Hawaii," she told him.

"Are you going to school, working…." Steve started to ask and then trailed off.

Arianna couldn't help but grin at the man. "I graduated early from Gallaudet University with a major in secondary education. I have a job at Hawai'i School for the Deaf and Blind that starts in a month or so, depending on when the departing teacher decides to start her maternity leave. I'll be teaching English, creative writing and English literature."

"Wow! That's amazing," Steve exclaimed. "Sounds like you've got everything settled for your future."

He nearly choked on his mouthful when she responded with, "Mom said I got my tenaciousness and drive from my dad."

Her delighted laugh at his reaction made Steve smile again. His face was going to ache by the end of the day. Clearing his throat, he said, "Well, that's all I got for now. Your turn."

Having the grace to look sheepish, she admitted, "I did do some research about you before I went to your office so I have the basics, Navy SEAL, head of the governor's task force which is strangely called Five-0, born here in Hawaii and left for the mainland when you were young. So, I guess I'll start with why you moved to the reserves?"

"I'm impressed. You did do your homework. I transferred to the reserves when Governor Jameson offered the task force so I could hunt down my father's killer," Steve answered curtly.

"It's my turn to say sorry," Arianna said quietly.

"It's okay," Steve assured her.

"Did you get the guy?" she asked.

"Yeah, we did. What's next?" Steve encouraged.

"I almost hate to ask, is there any more family?" Arianna questioned hesitantly.

Steve took a deep breath. "That's a loaded question. Are you sure you want the details?" At her nod, he continued, "My dad sent my sister, Mary, and me to the mainland after my mother supposedly died in a car accident. Mary currently flits between L.A. and here and has recently adopted a baby girl she named Joan. My mother, it turns out, faked her death, reappeared in our lives almost a year ago and has since disappeared again. You have a great aunt Deb, but she is sick and you'll probably never get to meet her."

Arianna sat in silence for a minute, digesting the information. "Mom talked about a boy from high school who'd lost his mom. I realize now, she was talking about you. I'm really sorry."

"As I said, it's okay. You need to learn about your family and I'd rather you have the facts then what the rumor mill spreads," Steve assured her again. "Any more questions?"

"Maybe a few, but I think I'll reserve the right to ask at a later date. You seem to be sure that we're related, so it follows I should have time to satisfy my curiosity," Arianna stated, not quite ready to say father/daughter. Suddenly looking very tired, she continued, "We should get going. I'm beat. I was up early to catch my flight and I'd really like a nap. Besides that, I'm keeping you from work."

Steve looked guiltily at his watch. "Yeah, I should be getting back. I can drop you off at your hotel if you want and yes, I'm sure of those results."

"Sorry I don't have your confidence. Burned once, twice shy and all that. I gladly accept the offer of a ride. I know I lived here, but so many things have changed that I'm not sure I could find my way around," she accepted. "I'm staying at the Maile Sky Court." Reaching for her purse, she started to pull her wallet out.

"Put that back. I got this one," Steve instructed.

She started to protest but shut her mouth when she saw the look on his face. She made a mental note to start a tab. She hated being indebted to anyone.

It didn't take them long to reach the hotel. After parking, Steve turned to the young woman he was already considering his daughter. "Do you have plans for dinner?"

When she didn't answer, Steve could have slapped himself. She was looking for her key card and couldn't see his lips. Touching her arm to get her attention, he asked again.

"I plan on staying in. I am really tired," she reiterated.

"Oh, okay." Steve tried to hide his disappointment, not cognizant of the fact that Arianna could already read his faces as well as Danny.

"How about tomorrow night," she offered in consolation.

Steve threw her a goofy grin. "I'll take that. Put your number in and I'll text you with a time," he instructed, handing her the phone. She did as he insisted, but passed him her's giving him a look that told him she expected him to input his. Yep, he thought, definitely mine.

Steve waited until Arianna walked into the lobby before putting the truck in gear to head back to the Palace. He hoped the drive was long enough for him to come up with a plausible explanation for everyone, especially Catherine. He respected that Arianna wanted to keep the situation between them. Being honest with himself, he did too, but he didn't want to lie to the team. All too soon he was pulling into his parking space at HQ. Slowly blowing out the breath he'd been holding, Steve got out of the truck, ready to rip the band aide off, so to speak.


	2. Chapter 2

His team was standing around the tech table, looking at information on the big screens. "We got a case?" he inquired, praying for the reprieve, all the bravado from the parking lot vanishing the second he opened the door to HQ.

"Nah, just trying to get more than one perspective on a cold case HPD sent to us," Kono answered.

"Oh, that's good," he said, heading for his office. As he was settling in to get back to his paperwork, he covertly glanced out at the common area and damn if the team wasn't playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who was going to interrogate him. It would've been amusing if he wasn't so apprehensive. He turned his attention back to his computer before they caught him. When Chin knocked on his door, he knew who the winner/loser was.

"What you need, Chin," he stated more than asked as he waved the man in.

"I've finished my stack," the older man said, waving his had towards Steve's stacks, "and I was wondering if you wanted some help with yours since you're behind the rest of us because of the long lunch and all."

Steve looked the other man in the face, "Chin, you're not very subtle. She's the daughter of an old friend. Her mother told her she could look me up if she need anything."

"Hey, brah, I wasn't asking," Chin protested.

"But you were about to," Steve refuted.

"All right, you caught us. We're curious. It's not every day a beautiful young woman visits the office or that you take off without introducing your guests," Chin confessed.

"It was a personal matter for her and she's a bit shy," Steve told him, hoping it would appease everyone's curiosity.

Chin inclined his head, digesting the information. "If that's the story you want to stick with. Just a bit of unsolicited personal advice, I'd come up with something better to tell Catherine."

"I'm sure you can find something to do in your own office," Steve said, tipping his head towards the door. Chin chuckled and took the hint.

Steve got up, closed the door, turning the lock while he was there and closed all the blinds to his office. He knew it was the coward's way out, but he needed time to process. Spending time with Arianna, chatting with her had been surprisingly easy. There was no doubt in his mind she was his daughter, there were too many coincidences. He decided to keep the story simple, daughter of an old friend, needs some help. Simple. He sent a quick text to Arianna, letting her know he'd pick her up at seven tomorrow for dinner, barely refraining from asking her what she was going to do all day tomorrow. Her reply came quickly, _sounds good, meet u in lobby_.

Six o'clock rolled around without a new case so Steve decided to call it a day. He looked up to see all but Danny's office dark. He ambled out to the commons and over to his partner who was in the process of shutting things down.

"Hey partner, how come you're the last here? Where's everyone else?" Steve asked.

"I had some extra papers to add to the report since I was first on scene and I wanted to get them done so I wouldn't have to tomorrow," Danny replied. "As for the others, Chin had a date and Catherine said to tell you that since you were being antisocial, she and Kono were going to have a ladies night. Hey, that leaves you a free man tonight. Wanna grab a couple of beers?"

"Sounds good. I'm not really in the mood for a crowd though. How bout my place in twenty?" Steve offered.

"Perfect. Do I need to pick up a six pack or you good?" Danny questioned, gathering his keys.

"Fridge is fully stock, Danno," Steve answered.

"Perfect. Meet you there," Danny responded.

Steve gave him a pleased smile and slapped him on the shoulder, "You're an easy date, Danno."

Walking out of HQ, they shared idle chit chat before they separated for their respective vehicles. Steve thanked the powers that be for the reprieve he had before he had to talk to Catherine.

The partners made their way through the house to their favorite chairs on the beach (having made a pit stop at the fridge) sinking into their comfortable positions. A soothing quiet settled between them.

After several minutes, Danny took a fortifying breath while glancing at his best friend. "So, bet I never told you this but growing up I had a friend whose brother was deaf. I picked up sign language fairly quickly. I might be a little rusty now though."

Steve wanted to say he was surprised by Danny's declaration, but he couldn't. Deciding not to beat around the bush he asked, "How much of the conversation did you ease drop on?"

Danny tried to feign nonchalance, failing miserably. "I might have caught a word or two."

"A word or two, huh? Any words that might have stuck out?" Steve returned wishing for once that Danny wasn't such a good detective.

"Well, there was 'birth certificate' and 'you listed as', but I think the more interesting ones were 'father and daughter'," Danny replied looking directly at his friend.

Steve had never been good at hiding anything from Danny but he'd promised Arianna. "This is not just my story to tell, Danny."

"Fair enough," Danny conceded. "How bout I tell you what I think is going on and you affirm with your standard 'Neither confirm nor deny' statement." Not waiting for a response, he continued, "This young lady is the daughter of one of your high school girlfriends. Mom never told her who her biological father is and now something has happened to mom and this girl is looking to find her father. How am I doing? Am I even close?"

"Neither confirming nor denying isn't answering your questions," Steve pointed out.

"You are correct my friend, it is not, but your face when you say those words is and now I have my answer," Danny declared. "So when do you know for sure?"

"Three to five days," Steve grumbled.

"What are you going to tell Catherine?" Danny asked.

Steve looked sheepish. "Nothing for right now. We want to know for sure incase there isn't a story to tell and Arianna isn't comfortable broadcasting it to the world yet."

Danny humphed. He could see both sides of the coin. He knew he didn't want to be around when Catherine did find out, especially if Steve kept it a secret for too long.

"So when do you see her again?" Danny asked trying to sound casual.

"Tomorrow night. I'm picking her up for dinner, why?" Steve replied, his senses on alert from the tone of Danny's voice.

"Nothing, just curious is all," Danny muttered.

"All right, what's going through that head of yours," Steve demanded.

Danny stayed silent for a moment, obviously gathering his thoughts. Steve mentally prepared himself for an epic rant but was pleasantly surprised when Danny utter, "I don't want you getting hurt or taken by a con is all."

Steve felt the pull of brotherly love at the statement. "Danny, I did have the sense to check into what she told me some before, but mostly after I can back from lunch. As for doing the test first, well, there was enough circumstantial evidence to support it. For once, I didn't go off half cocked," Steve assured his partner.

Danny contemplated and carefully formulated his response, truly he did but what came out was, "Wow! So a daughter, huh? A grown-up daughter."

"Yeah." The single word all Steve could get out.

"Who's her mother?" Danny asked.

Over more beer and a delivered pizza, Steve ended up telling Danny about everything, starting from that fateful Halloween night. He even admitted to using Chucky to seduce Jenny. It felt good to let it all out. Of course, now he had to tell Arianna that Danny knew their secret. Jeez, how big of a hole could he dig himself into?


	3. Chapter 3

It was late when Danny left and Catherine wasn't home yet. Normally Steve would've waited up for her, but the day had been emotionally exhausting. He locked up and went to bed. A good night's sleep would go a long way to dealing with Catherine in the morning.

Catherine didn't bother being quiet when she got back to Steve's. She was still angry at him. Yeah, they didn't live in each other's back pockets but they did mostly live together and they generally shared. Things had gotten so much better since Steve had forgiven her for not telling him about Doris and Mangosta. She thought they had an unspoken agreement not to keep secrets anymore. Guess she was wrong.

When she saw the dark, silent house her irritation at it's owner ratcheted up a notch. He could've waited for her. She shut the front door behind her, not quite slamming it. No noise from upstairs. Trotting briskly up the stairs, she stopped barely inside the room. The light from the window allowed her to see that Steve was sprawled on his back over most of the bed, the covers half way down his body and his pillow bunched up under his head. Despite her aggravation, she took a moment to admire the view but then stomped to the bathroom. The annoying man didn't even have the decency to wake up as she deliberately left the door open with the light shining on his face while she completed her nighttime ritual. If she had been angry before, now she was pissed. He didn't even budge as she climbed into bed. She resorted to shoving him over to make room for herself and all she got was a snort interrupted snore.

Catherine awoke to the smell of food and coffee, Steve's passive way of apologizing. She quickly took care of business in the bathroom and went downstairs. Startled, words failing her, she groaned when she found Mary and Joan in the kitchen instead of Steve.

"Want some coffee," Mary stated more than asked, handing over an already full cup.

She took the cup on autopilot. After a couple of sips she managed to find her words. "Morning, Mary. I didn't know you were spending the night or that you were even in town."

"Oh, we didn't spend the night. We got here just as Steve was going out to meet Danny. Joan wanted breakfast with her uncle but that wasn't happening and I'm only here until this afternoon then we're going to Maui to spend some time with friends," Mary threw over her shoulder as she pulled out some plates from the cupboard.

Catherine looked at the time showing on the microwave, seven a.m., too early for work. "Where was he headed?" Catherine asked, irritated that Steve hadn't woken her.

Mary smirked. She liked working up Steve's friends. "He got a call from the governor for an early emergency meeting. He left you a note but Joan got ahold of it when we got here. I told him not to bother with another one, that I'd tell you when you got up," Mary relayed the information like she was Steve's personal secretary. "He said he'd see you at the office later."

"Wow, must be some emergency," Catherine mumbled, accepting the plate Mary shoved at her. Not wanting to be late, she scarfed the food down while playing with Joan then rushed through a shower. She bid Mary goodbye, hurrying out to work.

Even though she was early, everyone, minus Steve, was already gathered around the tech table. Danny's presence surprised her. "We got a case?" she asked joining them.

"You could say that," Danny answered. "Last night four high end jewelry stores were robbed. All of the alarms were disabled. The owners didn't know a damn thing until they came in this morning. All the calls came into HPD, but since it was four right in a row, they automatically kicked it to us. You've got good timing. Chin, Kono, you guys take the first two stores. Catherine, collate the information we have and start digging into each business. See if you can find anything to connect them or if anything sticks out with each one." Danny clapped his hands. "Okay, people, let's go get us some jewel thieves."

Chin chuckled.

Kono rolled her eyes and said, "You've been watching too many Leverage reruns, brah," and patted his shoulder on her way to grab her gear.

Danny turned to leave as well when Catherine stopped him. "What are you doing?" she asked trying to make it sound innocent.

Distracted by Chin and Kono playfully wrestling over the door, Danny replied automatically, "I'm gonna pick up Steve and we'll head over to the other two locations. We'll call in info as we get it."

"Pick up Steve?" she asked, confused.

But Danny didn't hear her as he made his way towards his office to grab his stuff. He left with a wave of his hand in her direction. Catherine sighed then turned to the computer table to start organizing the limited information. Hopefully the background searches would yield something useful.

Steve was waiting (read pacing) at the curb when Danny pulled up outside the capital building. Danny was already talking as his partner slid into the passenger's seat. "I gotta say, babe, that I fully expected _not_ to see hide nor hair of you for the rest of the day after our early morning phone call. The case was a godsend."

"Me too, partner. I'm glad the situation is settled," Steve replied, sinking into the seat while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Wanna feed me the details?" Danny asked.

"Jeez. It's ridiculous. It turns out the threats were from the boyfriend of the Lt. Governor's daughter cause the girl couldn't go to some dance or something," Steve blandly stated.

Danny shot him an incredulous look as he checked the mirrors before changing lanes. "Let me get this straight. You're telling me that some stupid kid decided it was a good idea to threaten the life of the Lt. Governor just because he couldn't get a date?"

"That sums it up," Steve snarked.

"Kids these days. Should lock them up until they're twenty-one. Their hormones make them dangerous to themselves," Danny declared.

"Especially Grace," Steve added.

"Yes, especially Grace," Danny agreed.

"The kid got a text from the daughter telling him they'd called in Five-0 to investigate and he confessed immediately," Steve said, finishing the tale.

Danny guffawed, "Nice to know our reputation proceeds us."

"Yeah, too bad we couldn't capitalize on it with all our cases. What we got with this one?"

"Well, four high end jewelry stores were hit last night, Kahue's, Iona's, Maury's and Diamonds. The alarm systems were bypassed at all four. Owners came in this morning to find their inventory missing. I split the list with Chin and Kono. We have Kahue Jewelers and Iona's Fine Jewelry. CSI has been sent to each location already," Danny informed him.

"Not much to go on," Steve commented.

"Not so much, no. All four calls came in to HPD within a half hour. It sent up red flags so we got called. They didn't even send uni's. I called all the owners to let them know someone from the team would be there in person. At least CSI is there so they know the cops are doing something," Danny returned.

"Okay, so what's our first location?" Steve asked.

"Iona's. Owner is Oswald Iona. Manager as well," Danny informed him.

Steve snickered, "Who names their kid Oswald?"

Danny was saved from answering as they pulled up behind the CSI van. The pair made there way inside, splitting up to interview the owner and the three employees. Spying a pretentious looking man he guessed correctly was Oswald Iona, Steve steered Danny towards the guy while he made a beeline for one of the employees, a rather shy looking woman about his mom's age. He didn't fail to catch the finger his partner pointed at him from behind his back. It was good to be the boss.

Thirty minutes later the two men followed the techs out the door of the store and made their way to the car, Steve going for the driver's side.

"I got nothing from the employees other than I remind the one of her nephew who currently lives in Bismarck with his life partner. You get anything?" Steve inquired as he pulled into traffic.

Danny shifted so he could look at Steve. "This is definitely a pro job. According to Iona, the place has a state of the art security system with two fail safes. The crooks didn't wipe them out, select items were taken from the display drawers. They concentrated on top price wedding sets. The safe in the back wasn't touched. In all there were twenty-three sets, women's and men's rings, missing."

"All right, call Cath with the info. What's the address of our next location?"

Danny told him as he dialed HQ. He relayed the information quickly and asked if the other team members had checked in. His frown grew as he listened to the reply then said "We'll take it. We're closer."

"What's up? Chin and Kono get anything?" Steve queried when Danny hung up.

"No, they haven't checked in yet. We've got a fifth location though."

Steve's eyebrow's raised. "We're just hearing about this?"

"Yeah, it seems Maintain opens later on Tuesdays so they can stay open later. The manager got in about twenty minutes ago. Said we'd take it as we'll be closer after Kahue's then Chin. Catherine's got CSI on the way," Danny recounted the conversation.

Their next two stops resulted in much the same information. Security bypassed and only wedding sets were taken. The slight difference between the three stores was Kahue's was missing twenty-five sets and Maintain, twenty-four. The partners grabbed a quick lunch then headed back to HQ to compile the data from all five sites.

Steve's phone chimed a text as they were mounting the steps. Pulling it out of his pocket, he was pleased to see the message was from Arianna. _We still on for seven or has the criminal element of Hawaii superseded our plans._

_Did catch a case, but so far the bad guys are following banker's hours. Should still be there. Will let you know if different._

_Good. Be safe. _:)

_Always_

Danny watched as Steve texted back and forth with someone. From the dopey look on the man's face, it could be either one of two people, Joan (via Mary) or Catherine. The guy was too easy to read.

"Joan or Catherine?" Danny asked as Steve pocketed his phone.

Danny waved a hand towards the general vicinity of the phone and repeated, "Joan or Catherine?"

Steve cocked his head, reminding Danny of a labrador puppy. "Huh?"

"The text, Steven. Your face said it was either Joan or Catherine. I'm asking which one," Danny said exasperated.

"Oh! Neither. It was Arianna. She wanted to know if we were still on for dinner tonight," Steve said, finally getting the question.

Danny didn't have a response so he motioned for Steve to proceed him into the building.

Catherine and Kono were organizing information at the tech table and Chin was in his office on the phone when the pair walked in shoulder to shoulder.

"Okay, guys, what have we got?" Steve demanded while Danny caught Chin's attention, silently asking him to join them when he was done with his call.

Catherine took the lead. "The common elements: five jewelry stores. all high priced, only wedding sets were taken, all security seamlessly short-circuited, three of the five use the same company, the other two have different ones, all are long established businesses twenty years or more. Now we have the unusual. Each location had a different number of sets taken; Diamonds twenty-one, Maury's twenty-two, Iona's twenty-three, Maintain twenty-four, Kahue's twenty-five."

"The thieves are pros to be able to get around the security," Chin stated. "Why would they take various amounts. Do we know a monetary value yet?"

Kono shook her head. "Not yet, but we do know that every set was at least $25,000 so at minimum we're talking $525,000."

"We got anything else?" Steve pressed.

"None of the places have had any maintenance done to their systems. All claim that it's been business a usual, nothing out of the ordinary," Catherine answered.

"What about video footage? We got that from the stores yet?" Danny asked.

"Only from Iona's and we haven't had time to go through it. We're still waiting on the others," Catherine told him.

"How bout the owners, managers and employees, you find any connection between the stores?" Steve wondered.

"I have the lists, but I'm still working my way through them. We have five owners, three managers and about two dozen employees all told," Catherine informed him.

Steve's disappointment showed. "So we've got nothin'. Okay, everybody take a store and start digging. There's got to be some connection." He paused to check his watch, "We'll pool our info in three hours."

File folders were distributed and the team dispersed. Catherine waited for Steve to sit down before she followed him. He glanced up as she entered.

"Hey, I missed you this morning," she said quietly.

"Uh, yeah, sorry about that. The governor called as I was getting back from my swim. I didn't want to wake you," Steve said.

"Oh. Why didn't you take the truck instead of calling Danny?" she asked.

"It wouldn't start. I was about to take yours when Danny called me. As we were headed to the same place, he offered to come round and get me so I wouldn't leave you without a car."

"Mary said you were in the house when she got there," she pressed, not liking his answer.

"I'd went back in to leave you a note, then Mary showed up with Joan and then Danny pulled up. You know how it goes?"

"Sure," she said. "I'll get back to this then," she continued, pointing to the folder in her hand. She couldn't shake the feeling Steve was holding something back, but she knew better than to press the issue. He grunted an unintelligible response, already absorbed in his own file.

Three and a half hours later the team came together again only to find they still had nothing. By the time they'd hashed through what little they did have again, everyone was ready to call it a day. Hopefully fresh eyes in the morning would bring something to light.

Steve followed Catherine to her car. He was about to ask for the keys when she turned to him. "Say, you wanna do something special tonight? Maybe check out that new Thai place and then grab a video?"

Steve sounded sheepish when he replied, "I kinda forgot to tell you. I made plans to have dinner with an old friend who's in town. Raincheck for tomorrow?"

"Sure, sure. No problem," Cath whispered. "Maybe Mary's still there and we can do something."

She got quietly into the car, waiting for Steve to get them on the road before she voiced her concerns, "Hey, um, we're still good, right? I'm mean nothing's happened or anything."

Steve's confused expression reassured her. "Of course we're good. Why would you think we wouldn't be?"

"No reason. It's that you seem a little off the last two days. You know, after the visit from that girl yesterday," Catherine continued.

"Oh, are you jealous, Rollins," Steve teased.

"No. I'm not jealous, just you know, curious," she hedged.

"No need to be jealous. She's the daughter of an old friend. Brought up some forgotten memories is all. Not a big deal," Steve explained.

"Oh. Well if you need to talk or anything," Catherine offer trailed off.

Steve peeked at her while trying to keep his eyes on the road. "I know where to find you."

Steve rushed through his shower. He wanted to have time to stop at the bookstore before picking Arianna up. Not all of his afternoon had been spent going over the case. He'd took a break to look up available sign language books. He appreciated that his daughter read lips so well, but if he learned signing, it would make it easier for her and when did he really start thinking of her as his daughter?


	4. Author's Note

Many readers have expressed their dislike of the way Steve is treating Catherine in this work. I'm hoping this explanation will help.

This was written under the assumption that when the actress Michelle Borth leaves the show, Steve and Catherine's relationship ends.

This work is solely my take on how Steve would deal or rather not deal with a relationship that he knew was ending. In my opinion, he has never really treated Catherine all that well to begin with and he really didn't know how to be in a relationship with her so when his focus changes, he compartmentalizes the situations.

Mahalo


	5. Chapter 5

Catherine hid her disappointment well, watching Steve rush out the door and shouting "Don't wait up," over his shoulder. Mary and Joan were heavens knew where, probably on their way to Maui, so she glumly dropped on the couch and picked up the remote. She knew Steve still kept his secrets. It was a bit of a double standard what with the whole Doris thing, but Steve's secrets mostly concerned keeping his family safe. She thought they'd worked through the whole keeping things from each other. Apparently not. She knew he wasn't telling the whole truth, she could feel it. Then again maybe she was being paranoid, maybe it was simply what he said, maybe. Determined to shake it off for the night she found a station showing Chicago and settled back.

Steve easily found the right section of the bookstore but he wasn't prepared for the overwhelming selection. Who knew there'd be so many different versions of signing, literally three sections crammed full. Only one of the titles he found on line was on the shelf so he pulled it out to glance through it, quickly putting it back on the shelf. It was more of "I'm on vacation in a foreign country and I need to be able to ask where the bathrooms are" type of book. Not what he wanted. Time to ask the expert. He pulled out his phone, sending off a quick text.

_Hey. so standing in the bookstore in front of a million books on signing. Overwhelmed. any suggestions_

Arianna's reply came back within a minute. _LOL You don't have to_

_Want to_

_Okay if ur serious American Sign Language, The Easy Way is good or The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary. If truly serious American Sign Language Dictionary_

_Perfect. C U in a few_

_C U_

Steve quickly scanned the offerings finding the first two easily, the third wasn't there.

A quick perusal showed the books taught in different ways so he decided to get both. When he reached the check out, he inquired about ordering the other book Arianna recommended. The clerk told him he'd be better off ordering from Amazon. Steve thanked her for help and ran to the truck. Tossing his purchases in the back he may or may not have pushed a few red lights in order to get to Arianna's hotel on time.

Deciding to wait in the lobby for Steve to arrive, Arianna tried very hard to squelch the nerves that made her want to bite her lip. She still hadn't come to terms with her mom's death and now she had the possibility of having a father for the first time in her life. At that moment, the man of her thoughts walked through the hotel doors. His presence commanding the attention of every female in the area and a few of the males. She didn't bother stopping the chortle that escaped her mouth.

"Hey. You ready to go?" Steve asked as he drew closer.

"All set," Arianna replied readjusting the purse strap.

"What's with the smile?" he questioned, steering her towards the pickup. She glanced over her shoulder, catching the glares aimed her way.

"Nothing much. Just thought of something funny is all."

Steve shrugged, helping her into the truck. After they were both buckled in, he turned to her, catching her attention. "If you're not super hungry yet, I was thinking of this place on the North Shore that has a huge selection of everything. The food is pretty good."

"I can wait. It sounds good. I haven't been to the North Shore in so long. It'll be fun to see how much it's changed," she told him.

The drive was pleasantly silent except for a few murmured words by Arianna about how she'd forgotten how beautiful Oahu is. When they pulled into the lot, Arianna squealed in delight. "Hamasaki's! I loved this place as a kid. Gramps use to take Grams and me here once a month after church." Clutching Steve's arm in her excitement, she gushed, "Please tell me they still serve tempura shrimp and soba salad."

Steve beamed! Score one for dad! "Yeah they still do. You like Japanese?"

Arianna's smile widen. "My second favorite food. The first being Polynesian. Try getting decent Polynesian in Seattle. Not happening."

"Well, let's go eat," Steve stated, guiding her to the front door.

They had a fifteen minute wait. Steve really wanted to ask some more questions, but the waiting area was too crowded for them to find a spot where he could stand so Arianna could read his lips without it looking like he was going to plant a kiss on her. He didn't need the coconut wireless announcing he was robbing the cradle with a new girlfriend. A little frustrated, he made a mental note to dig into the books he bought immediately.

Once seated, their server came quickly but once the guy realized Arianna was deaf, the jerk directed all of his attentions towards Steve. Steve could't hide his annoyance at the man's inconsideration and was formulating a verbal smack down when he felt a touch to his forearm.

"Steve, don't. It's not worth it. There's always going to be a few inconsiderate morons out there but for everyone of those morons, there are dozens of conscientious people. You have to learn to let the little battles go."

Steve stared at his daughter. She sound far wiser than her years and the swell of pride that rose in him almost overwhelmed him. He still wanted to put the moron in his place. "Fine, for now but if he thinks he's getting a decent tip, he's got another thought coming."

Arianna patted his hand. "See, you're catching on already."

Their conversation was sparse as they waited for their food to arrive. Neither wanted to start anything lengthy only to be interrupted. For as busy as the place was, the food arrived relatively quickly. It was time to talk.

Steve cleared this throat with a sip of water before beginning. "So, what did you do to fill your time today?"

"I had a meeting with the school principle to go over my contract and find out my start date, then I roamed the International Marketplace. You know it was so exciting as a kid, now, not so much. I went down to the beach to soak up the sun."

"You didn't go swimming?" Steve asked, surprised.

"No, I don't like to swim alone. I get too wrapped up in it and before I know it, I'm not paying attention to the dangers."

Steve sighed, "I was scared you were going to say you didn't swim."

Arianna laughed, "Hardly, I was on the swim team in high school and college. I swim like a fish."

"Maybe sometime we can swim together. I have a private beach and the area is good for swimming. You could enjoy and let me worry about the dangers," Steve suggested.

"You think you could keep up with me?" Arianna teased.

Steve took the bait. "I think my SEAL training might give me an advantaged," he teased back.

"I'll let you keep thinking that," Arianna taunted.

Steve laughed, almost choking on his shrimp.

"So, what did you do today? Catch any nefarious criminals?" she asked, giving him a moment to pull himself together.

"We didn't catch any bad guys, but we did get a new case," he replied.

"Can you talk about it or is it, what do they say on those cop shows, 'You can't talk about an open investigation'," Arianna asked.

"It's not that strict," Steve dismissed the statement. "We got a string of high end jewelry store robberies, but I'd rather not get into too much detail cause I've been pouring over files all day."

"Fair enough," she acknowledged. "So, what do you do in your down time?"

Steve thought for a moment. "I don't get a lot of down time. I guess swimming, surfing and hiking."

"That's all pretty physical," she noted.

"That's what the Navy does for you," Steve shrugged. "What about you?"

"Me? I'm a bit of a bookworm but I love to swim, like I mentioned, run and bike ride," she informed him.

They continued sharing information until both their plates were clean. Steve couldn't help but see the yawns, Arianna was trying very hard to hide. "Still have some jet lag?"

The tips of her ears turned red. "Sorry, guess I should've taken a nap today."

"It'll get better. Come on, let's get you back to the hotel." Steve laid enough down to cover the check and give a five percent tip. The waiter hadn't even bothered to check on them after delivering their plates.

Despite her yawns, Steve offered to take the scenic route back so Arianna could see more of the island. He was pleased when she said yes. They weren't even half way back when he noticed she'd nodded off. Turning on the radio on low, Steve enjoyed the drive and the quiet company of his daughter.

He waited until he'd got the truck parked before gently shaking her shoulder. She awoke with a huge stretch and an embarrassed face. "Sorry for falling asleep on you."

"It's okay. You're tired," he reassured her.

"I don't want you thinking it's your company or anything like that," she ribbed.

"Are you always this snarky?" Steve asked, entranced.

"Yup" was the succinct reply.

He couldn't help the belly laugh. "At least you come by it honestly. Need me to walk you in?"

"Nope. I've got it," she said, moving to open the door.

Steve grabbed her wrist. "What's your plans for tomorrow?"

Arianna settled back against the seat. "Not too much. I need to go to the rental management place to pick up the keys and I'm going to thoroughly check out the bus system."

Steve was baffled. "I thought you said you can't get into the house until Friday?"

"I can't but the management place is closed this Thursday and Friday so I need to pick up the spare set."

"Oh. Makes sense. Why the bus? Don't you have a rental car now? You'd also mentioned that your grandpa's old Chev. was in the back garage, waiting."

Arianna sighed. Clearly her dad was the over protective overtly nosy type. "The bus is a 'in case the car doesn't work' or my bike takes longer to get here than expected solution."

"So you're planning on using the bus to get around tomorrow?" Steve asked, clearly unhappy.

"I'm planning on it," Arianna confirmed.

"Look, I'm not comfortable with you exploring the public transit on your own," Steve stated.

"Well, I can't walk like I did today. Their office is out by the airport. Besides, I'm use to the bus. I rode it all the time in Seattle."

"Well, Seattle isn't Honolulu. It's not a good idea," Steve countered.

"Well," she huffed, "unless you have a better idea, it's the only option I've got."

Steve pulled the keys out of the ignition and extended his arm to dangle the items between them. "You take the truck for the day and I'll pick it tomorrow night when we have dinner again."

He couldn't read the look she was giving him and for a moment he wished he had Danny with him to analyze the expression.

"I'm not taking your car. You barely know me. I'm also a big girl. I can handle the bus."

So that's her ticked off face, Steve thought as he registered it. He also noted he'd been spending way to much time with Danny if he was categorizing someone's facial expressions. "I trust you," he stated firmly, knowing he was going to win this argument.

About the second Steve knew he was going to win, it dawned on Arianna she was going to lose. "Exactly how are you going to get home and how are you going to explain your missing ride?"

"I told Catherine I was meeting an old friend. I'll simply tell her I loaned them/you the truck," Steve said.

"Catherine's your girlfriend right?" she asked for clarification.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. She half-way lives with me."

Resignation passed across her face. "You can tell her if you want."

Steve turned to stare out the window for a moment before looking back at her. "No. I agree we need time to get to know each other first. Make sure of the DNA first."

"Are you sure?" she whispered.

"Yep," he emphasized. "Having said that though, I need to tell you my partner Danny knows."

The disbelieving look she gave him made him squirm. "You told your partner, but you won't tell your girlfriend?"

"In all fairness, I didn't tell Danny. Surprisingly enough, the man knows sign language. He ease dropped yesterday."

The silence stretched between them like an old rubber band. Finally it snapped. "Fine, I'll use your truck to get around tomorrow, but I'm buying dinner tomorrow night and it's going to be Polynesian. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Smug is not a good look on you, Sir," Arianna announced, grabbing the keys and jumping down from the truck. She turned back long enough to say, "Text me with a time."

Steve shook his head in amazement while he got out and locked the doors barely remembering to grab his books from the back seat. She didn't even wait for him to catch a cab. He walked towards the front doors of the hotel to see if they had an on call before he phoned for a cab. Arianna stood barely inside the doors, waiting for him. "Your cab will be here in five," she said cheekily.

"My God, you're a handful," Steve exclaimed.

"Get use to it. You're stuck with me," she declared.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he replied.

The house was dark when his cab pulled up. Steve quickly double checked the perimeter and snuck upstairs. Catherine was lying on her side, sound asleep. He stripped to his underwear and crawled under the sheet.

Reaching over to pull her closer, he whispered in her ear, "I'm home," not expecting a reply.

Catherine mumbled, "Good."


	6. Chapter 6

It seemed everyone had the same idea as they were all in early, beating Steve and Cath by probably half an hour and it was only six thirty. Chin and Kono were going through the video footage of the one store they'd received. Danny was on the phone though who he was talking to at this ungodly hour was anyone's guess.

"What have we got?" Steve asked to the room in general, taking his place at the tech table.

Chin paused the playback to answer the boss. "We've got the footage from all five stores. Seems the server was having problems or we'd have had it late yesterday afternoon. We've just started reviewing Diamonds. Maintain and Kahue's sent redacted client lists. Danny's on the phone with the one's that live on the mainland, hoping for anything."

It was that moment Danny decided to join them in the main room. "Maintain's clients are a bust so far. All those from the mainland are accounted for and have alibis. I'm gonna check the alibis out even though for most of them it would be cutting it close to be able to get back to their homes if they'd been the ones to pull the heists."

Steve nodded, "Yeah, sounds like some long shots, but since we've got nothing."

"I'll keep at it," Danny finished his thought.

"Why are the lists redacted?" Steve questioned, wearing _Confused Face #2._

"It seems that certain clientele like their privacy," Danny told him.

"Privacy? It's jewelry, not porn," Steve pointed out.

"Rich people have strange notions. You should know that by now, Steven," Danny stated.

"Yeah, I guess. Should we send the videos over to Charlie for analysis?" Steve asked.

"I think it's best we see if we have anything first," Kono answered. "These guys are smart enough to get around the alarms, they're probably smart enough to mess with the video. I'd hate to send it all to Charlie only to find out there was nothing to look at, especially since they've got five stores worth of physical evidence to sift through."

"Sounds good. Any of these have audio with them?" Steve asked. After Chin told him no, he continued, "Pull up Maury's on the other screen. Cath and I can review it. We'll be able to get through them faster." Steve's phone buzzed with an incoming text as Kono was getting the video ready.

_know why you insisted i take ur truck. U NEED FUEL! what do u put in this thing?_

Steve chuckled at his daughter's message, rapidly typing in his response. _So guess this means i'm buying dinner 2nite? i use regular. Sorry bout that._

He waited for a response. When he didn't get one, he looked up from his phone to find the entire team staring at him. "What?!" he blustered.

Danny took the bull by the horns. "Who's got you so happy this morning?"

"The text," he said, trying to buy some time. "I loaned my truck to a buddy last night and apparently I forgot to put gas in it. He was giving me guff is all."

"So that's where the truck is. I figure since it wasn't in the drive, you'd had a few and decided not to drive home," Catherine said.

"Video's up, boss," Kono said before he could respond.

The four settle down to watch the video footage while Danny went back to his office to call the mainland customers from Kahue's. He figured by the time he made it through those it'd be late enough to start calling the locals.

Kono had keyed to videos to start running at an hour before closing for each store. Twenty minutes in Steve's phone chimed again.

_Im thinkn somthin more than popo or a shrimp plate. more like surf and turf. HOW MANY GALLONS CAN THIS THING HOLD! Do u kno what ur carbon footprint is? Srysly!_

Steve's smile consumed his face. _Hey at least i don't use premium in it and i reduce my footprint by using my partner's car. _

_So he drive a hummer or a tank coz they surely take less fuel than this thing. oh hey it's finished fillin_

_Camaro_

_What?!_

_He drives a camaro_

_Sweet! gotta go, gonna b l8_

An elbow to his torso brought Steve's attention back to the task at hand.

"You a teenage girl now?" Catherine asked him, trying unsuccessfully to see what he was typing.

"Sorry. Anything yet?" Steve asked by way of a response.

"Not yet, but we're just an hour after closing," she told him.

Chin and Kono's video brought up their thieves first. Steve paused his so all four of them could watch the action. At 11:31p.m. three figures appeared on the camera. Dressed head to toe in dark clothes, faces covered by Three Stooges masks, their perps were efficient. They moved with practiced precision, two of them quickly opening the storage in the display cabinets. The person stood back, turning his head back and forth, studying the contents. He then began to point to individual drawers while the other two plucked the merchandise. They bagged the goods, closed up the cabinets and left. The whole process took less than twenty-five minutes.

Now having an idea as to the crooks mode of operation, Steve hit fast forward on the second video. The perps appeared on screen at 12:32 a.m., same routine. Quickly pulling up the other three videos, they watched the robberies then backed up the tapes to when the crooks first show themselves: Iona's, 1:33 a.m.; Maintain, 2:34 a.m.; Kahue's, 3:35 a.m.

Kono was the first to say it, "What the hell. That's some serious timing."

Chin quickly started typing on the screen sending the results to the third screen. "That's not all. These are the amounts reported stolen from each store, same order as times of the thefts. Diamonds has $550,000 missing and it goes up in $50,000 increments, with Kahue's missing $750,000."

"Our bad guys sure have a thing for numbers," Catherine observed.

"Yeah, but what does it mean," Chin asked to the room at large.

Steve shook his head. "I have no idea. Let's get this over to Charlie, see if he can work some of his magic and ID. these guys."

Leaving the others, Steve walked over to Danny's office and knocked lightly on the door. The shorter man waved him in then put his finger to his lips to tell Steve to stay silent for a minute.

"Yes, sir. I fully understand but you have to see the position I'm… Well, yes, due process is a constitutional right but so is the pursuit of justice…. No, sir, I'm not mocking you. I'm asking for your help in solving a case….. You have a good day too, sir." Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Danny may or may not have made choking motions with his free hand. The look of disgust on the man's face told Steve he'd probably missed the better part of the conversation.

"So, not going so well with the client lists, then," Steve stated the obvious.

Danny rubbed his hand across the back of his neck and leaned back in his chair. "Well the good news is I think I might have a standing date waiting for me in Austin should I ever decide to visit the great state of Texas."

Steve couldn't help himself. "What's the bad news?"

"I'm pretty sure I've pissed off a gangster turned famous rapper and I'll never be able to show my face in L.A. again."

"Well, you've accomplished quite a bit this morning," Steve ribbed. "Anything more on the case though?"

Danny's scowl was enough of an answer. Steve filled him in on where they were at with the videos, both men agreeing the numbers were a key but not sure a key to what. Danny mentioned they'd received the rest of the client lists. Steve told him to split the lists with the rest of the team as they had no other leads. He was about to head for his own office when another text came in.

_So how much trouble wud i b in if i accidentally drove four blocks with the siren and lights on w/o realizin it?_

Steve couldn't help the snort of surprise. _U didnt try to stop anyone did u?_

_Of course not! did scare the crap out of a elderly lady driver tho_

_Ur okay then. Just pay more attention to what buttons you push from now on_

_Roger that! BIG OL' POST IT COVERING THAT BUTTON NOW!_

_How'd you notice they were on?_

_Saw the reflection in a storefront window. still on for dinner? i think my l8est hi jinks have negated the huge tab possibility_

_I'll b at ur hotel at six barring another case._

_Cool!_

Steve turned to find Danny watching him intently. "You can't tell me that was a buddy," his partner decreed.

"It's Arianna. She's running errands with my truck and has had a couple of issues," Steve admitted.

"Not to butt in here, Steve, but aren't you bonding with this girl a little too quickly? You don't even have the results back yet," Danny said, his tone heavy with concern.

Ignoring the obvious response, Steve said, "I know, Danny, but I don't need the results. I know already."

"Okay. You know I'm happy for you, right," his partner said.

"Happy enough to give me a ride to the hotel later?" Steve begged.

Danny smirked. "Yeah, I can do that."

Steve headed for the commons. Danny, needing a cup of coffee, followed him. The two men took a minute to review the data Chin had posted on the screens. Steve pointed out the info Danny'd missed while on the phone.

"There's something about the numbers that rings a bell, but I can't quite put my finger on it," Danny said after reviewing the info.

"It's too coincidental to not mean something," Kono stated.

Steve doled out the lists and except for a fast lunch break, the team spent the remainder of the day with their phones stuck to their ears. The lab had started sending their results, but as they'd found nothing, it was less than helpful. When he found out Charlie would have nothing from the videos until the morning, Steve called it a day. Standing, stretching to relieve tight muscles, he waved at Danny through the office windows to get the man's attention, then pointed at his watch, pointed to the outer doors with his thumb then flashed five fingers. Danny jerked his head in understanding.

Steve made his way to Catherine's office. She was rubbing her eyes with one hand, while putting the phone back in its cradle. "Hey, sailor, ready to head out," she said when she noticed his presence.

"Yeah, about that. My buddy called. He's done with the truck so I'm gonna have Danny run me over there since he's got to go that way anyway and then if it's all right with you, I'm gonna grab dinner at the hotel before heading home," Steve informed.

"Sure, go spend time with your friend. I'm sure you still have a lot to catch up on," Catherine replied.

Steve leaned over. Cath prepared herself for a brief kiss but instead received a squeeze on her hand. "Thanks. You're the best," he told her already breaking contact and moving away.

"Yeah, yeah, you remember that," she muttered, watching his retreating back. "Hey, Steve, do I know this guy? I mean maybe I could join you," she called out before the man made it too far.

Steve spun around, his 'thinking face' firmly in place. "Nah, you don't know 'em. You'd probably get bored. I won't be too late." With that, he continued on his way, proceeding Danny out the door.

Cath follow their progress until they turned the corner. God. How much more pathetic could she get, she berated herself. She'd practically begged Steve. Why was this bothering her so much? Sighing, she resigned herself to another solitary evening until Kono popped in, obviously on her way out.

"Hey, wanna hit Side Streets?" her friend asked.

"Yeah, give me a sec to shut down then we're outta here," Cath answered.

Arianna was again waiting in the lobby when Danny dropped him off. Giving the car an appreciate once over she turned to Steve, "Yeah sure, you drive it because of the lower carbon foot print."

Steve sputtered, then went for sheepish. Arianna tossed him the keys to his truck, "Come on. I'm hungry."

They stayed closer to home tonight, driving to Waipahu to another of Steve's favorite dives. Over dinner they both talked about their days. Arianna gave him the full details of her exploits with the siren. Steve decided to leave the post it note right where it was. He told her more about the case, expressing his frustration at their lack of leads.

Tapping her fork on her bottom lip, she gave him a thoughtful look. "It sounds like you have a a bad guy that has savant syndrome."

Steve frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"With all the numbers and sequencing. It sounds like someone with savant syndrome, probably autistic," she answered.

"I've heard of it, but I'm not sure I know the details," Steve admitted.

"Well, it's when a person with a mental disability has a profound capability. You said the robberies took just minutes and that one person quickly scanned the drawers before dictating which items to take. Rapid calculations is a characteristic. It would also explain all the sequential numbers," she informed him.

"That's definitely something to look into," Steve commented. "This person probably wouldn't be the mastermind though, right?"

"Probably not. I would think it would be rare for them to actually be able to plan out such an elaborate scheme even though they'd be the one to stick to the schedule. The quick calculation of amounts was more than likely intentional," Arianna agreed.

"We can on that in the morning. It's more than we have right now. So enough shop talk. What's on your agenda for tomorrow?" Steve asked to change the topic.

"I've kept in touch with a couple of friends from when we lived here. Tomorrow I'm meeting Ellie and her family for lunch then we're headed for beach for the day. Doug and Sharon are joining us for dinner."

Steve didn't try to hide his disappointment at her proclamation. Arianna took pity on him. "You could join us for dinner if you want. It'll be dogs and burgers over the grill."

"I thought you wanted to keep this between us for now," he stated.

"I can tell them the same thing you're telling your friends. You're a long time friend of my mom."

"Nah, you need to spend time with your friends and not with your old man," Steve replied, shaking his head.

Arianna studied him with such and intensity that Steve began to fidget. "You're going to be let down if the results come back negative aren't you?" she stated more than asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"Me too," she whispered back.


	7. Chapter 7

Side Streets and Kono proved to be the distraction Cath needed. She felt herself wind down and have a good time. All too soon it was time to call it a night. Not wanting to fight for parking, they'd walked over from HQ. It was a beautiful night and they were both enjoying the attention they were getting from the male tourists that populated their route. The two were waiting for the light to change so they could cross the road when Kono poked her in the arm.

"Hey! Isn't that Steve's truck?" Kono asked pointing down the road.

Catherine turn her gazed in the direction of Kono's arm. Sure enough, there was Steve on the opposite side of the road head towards the intersection and he wasn't alone.

"That must be his buddy with him. He didn't mention his buddy was a girl," Kono stated.

"No he didn't," Catherine confirmed.

"I couldn't get a good look at her, could you?" Kono went on, unaware of the tension seeping into her friend's demeanor.

"No, the light was too bad," she responded tightly, watching the truck make a right hand turn, the opposite way of where they were standing.

The light changed and Kono ushered her across the road. "You know, the last thing Steve would ever do is cheat on you," Kono said quietly. "He's all about the honesty."

"I know," Cath responded. "He still keeps his secrets though."

"There's a difference between keeping secrets and being honest," Kono said.

"I know," Cath sighed.

Steve still wasn't home when she got there, so she decided to get a jump on her packing. She had reserve drills this weekend and if she wanted to be on time for the early morning call on Friday, she'd have to be on base Thursday night. She'd already made arrangements to stay with a girlfriend who lived on base but with the case in progress she wasn't sure she'd get another time to gather her gear. She briefly wondered if Steve even remembered.

Steve arrived home not too long after Catherine. He was please to see that she was still up. Maybe they could share a glass of wine on the lanai before they hit the sack. He opened the door, surprised to find her duffle and boots sitting on the floor. He'd forgotten about her Reserves weekend.

"Hey, anybody home?" he yelled, not hearing any movements.

"Indisposed. Be down in a minute," Cath called back. "Why don't you grab some wine and I'll meet you out back."

Steve grinned. Great minds think alike. Making his way through the house, he grabbed a bottle and two glasses. He sank down into a chair and poured out two glasses. His grin widen when he did a mental review of the evening.

Arianna felt comfortable enough with him to ask him for a favor. She'd asked him to go through the house with her on Friday. She'd admitted to feeling a little nervous about going into the place after it had been rented out for so long. The management company had been a bit cagey about the condition of the place and Arianna suspected they hadn't been very diligent about checking on the property.

He freely admitted to himself that he hadn't been comfortable with the idea of his daughter going through the place on her own either. He agreed to meet her at one and she said she'd bring the sandwiches and drinks. He was compiling a mental list of tools and things they might need, depending on what they found. He could pack them in the truck tomorrow night. He was so engrossed in his musing, he didn't notice Catherine joining him until she snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Hey there. Where'd you go? You seemed a million miles away," Catherine said as she sat down next to him.

"Oh. Sorry. I was running through the case, trying to make sense of the weirdness," he explained.

"Come up with anything?" she asked.

"I got nothing."

"Kono and I saw you tonight on our way back from Side Streets," she threw out casually.

"Oh, yeah? Must have been taking my friend back to the hotel," he offered.

"Steve, is your friend a female? Is that why you didn't tell me about her?" Catherine asked, tired of beating around the bush.

Steve had the grace to look uncomfortable but he didn't hesitate in replying. "Yeah, she's a girl and I didn't tell you because I didn't want it to be awkward between us."

"You use to be lovers," she guessed.

"What?!" he squawked. "No! We're just friends but we have a heavy background. Just trying to find our way again."

Catherine's relief was palatable. "Oh, well I hope you can reconnect."

"Me too. Turns out she's decided to stay in Hawaii. Maybe I can introduce you sometime."

"I'd like that when you're ready," Catherine she said, giving him the first real smile she'd had in days.

The couple sat sipping their wine, enjoying the Hawaiian evening and each other's company until it was time to turn in.

Steve and Catherine drove separately to work the next morning as Cath wanted to head for base right after work and Steve wanted to get in early to run Arianna's theory. He had the offices to himself for almost two hours. Instead of working the new angle, he took the opportunity to start learning from his books. Sign language wasn't at all like the military hand gestures he was use to, but he figured he was making good progress in getting a couple of the basics down. He read online that a lot of connotation came from facial expressions. Hell if he had as many faces as Danny claimed he did, then he had that down pat already. Speak of the devil, his partner just walked in.

"Good morning, Danno," Steve said, signing at the same time.

"Well look at you! Learning to talk with your hands," the man exclaimed.

"Pot, kettle. You always talk with your hands, at least I'm using mine to make actual words," Steve retorted.

"Touche. Oh, and this is the sign for Danny," the blond said demonstrating by making a "D" and sweeping it along the side of his hair.

"Impressive. What's the sign for Steve?" said man asked.

Danny shrugged. "Not sure. Only a hearing impaired person can make a permanent sign for your name. You'll have to ask Arianna. Do you know hers?"

Steve showed him that he did by making an "A" while using the sign for song.

"Very impressive," Danny said again. "Now all you have to do is learn 'Book 'em, Danno' and you'll be set."

"Don't think I won't," Steve warned.

Danny laughed. "We get any more intel?"

Steve shared Arianna's theory with his partner. "It's solid. I heard of a case in Atlantic City once where the crooks were using a kid with savant syndrome to work the black jack and poker tables," Danny told him. "It's worth checking out. We need to reinterview the owners and employees, see if they remember anyone with special needs coming in accompanied by another person."

Steve concurred. He and Danny divided the lists between Chin and Kono and him and Danny. Catherine would stay behind to continue working through the client lists. It was going to be a long day. Steve had time to send off a quick email to update HPD and the governor before the rest of the team arrived. Once they were all there, Steve gave the assignments and they headed out.

Steve and Danny had switched up the lists so that neither team was interviewing the same people they had the first time. Their hope was to see if the different questioning techniques would yield more details. They caught a break. All five store managers remember a man with autistic characteristics coming in with another man. They said they were looking for engagement rings for themselves. All five managers agreed to meet with a HPD sketch artist today. Both teams headed back to HQ to await the renderings.

Catherine coordinated a late lunch for everyone. They were finishing up when the first sketch came in of the autistic man. Chin immediately started the facial recognition program. It was too much to hope they'd get an immediate result. It wasn't too long before the first sketch of the 'other' man came in. Chin got it in the system just as quickly. They got a hit within minutes.

"Kenny Ryder," Chin stated, sweeping the image up on the screens. "First class thief. His specialities include alarm systems and safes. Did five years on the mainland for B&E, moved to Hawaii once his parole was finished. Current address listed is a homeless shelter here in Honolulu.

"Let's get confirmation from the others and we'll go talk to the shelter organizers, see if Ryder is there," Steve said.

The other managers agreed that the sketches were of the two men they'd also encountered. Danny and Steve were soon on their way to the shelter.

"So plans with Arianna tonight?" Danny asked once they were back in the car.

"Not tonight. She's meeting up with some old friends," Steve said. "Hey, I gotta stop at Max's for a moment. Do you mind?"

"Of course not. Use my car for your personal errands anytime and seeing that we're already heading in that direction, who am I to say no," Danny snarked.

Steve ignored his partner as he put the car in park and jumped out to meet Max at the door. Danny saw a familiar looking white envelope exchange hands, confirming his suspicions that Max had the results of the DNA tests.

Steve was solemn when he climbed back into the car, tossing the envelope into the back seat. Danny studied the man he considered his brother, trying to figure out the sudden mood change. Steve didn't know the results yet, Danny knew that for certain because he'd watched the man like a hawk and not once did Steve even try to open the envelope.

"You okay?" Danny asked his partner, worry thick in his voice.

Steve sat gazing through the windshield for several minutes before he answered. "Yeah. I mean I guess so."

"Wanna talk about it?"

The SEAL turned to face his friend. Not since Catherine's abduction had Danny seen that look on Steve's face. The man was scared shitless. "What's going on in that goofy head of yours?" Danny questioned, trying to lighten the mood.

"It's just…. Well, you had nine months to come to terms with being a dad. I've had four days," Steve said so quietly Danny had to strain to hear him.

"Nine months wasn't enough either. Hell, sometimes I think I'm still not ready. At least you'll be beyond the crappy diapers, puberty, first date and all that stuff," Danny said, trying to be consoling.

"But that's all the stuff I've missed too, Danny. I wasn't there for her first steps, her first dance. I missed my opportunity to scare the crap out of her first date," Steve almost whined.

Danny reached over to clap his friend on the shoulder. "You still have many firsts to come, my friend. She's not married so you can still screen potential husbands. You'll be there to walk her down the aisle and a shoulder to cry on when they have their first fight."

"She's not getting married till she's forty," Steve adamantly stated.

Danny chuckled. "Are you going to open the envelope?"

"I kinda want to open it with her," Steve admitted.

"So what are you waiting for, call her," Danny directed.

"We've got a suspect to talk to, remember," Steve pointed out.

"Right. Okay, so we go get our suspect and wrap this up toot suite so you can call your daughter. Now drive."

"Toot suite, Danny? Really?"

"Are you going to mock my vocabulary again, Steven, because I have you know that 'toot suite' is a perfectly…"

Steve grinned as Danny continued to rant, knowing full well his partner was doing it to distract him.

By the time they got to the shelter, Danny had moved on from the defense of this vocabulary to telling Steve about the latest weather forecast for New Jersey and how he might possibly be happy he was in Hawaii right now.

The shelter director was little help. They hadn't seen Kenny in several days. The director did tell the two cops that Kenny usually came in with another man who went by the name Mal but who's name they had listed as George M. Tanaka.

Danny called in the information before they left the parking lot. Chin informed him that Catherine and Kono were faxing the picture of their other suspect to adult day cares and developmental disability agencies on the island. Catherine remembered how one of her friend's sister, who was autistic, went to one of these centers every day. Danny agreed it was worth a shot and told Chin it'd be a while longer before they made it back to HQ. Steve was sporting his _What the Hell are you talking about_ face when Danny looked over.

"Have somewhere to go, Danno?"

"No, Steve, I don't have any place to go, but you do. Now turn this car around and head for where ever your daughter is."

Steve decided, wisely, not to argue with his partner. He started the car making a left and heading for Makaha Beach. Though the beach was fairly crowded, Steve spotted Arianna quickly. She was just coming in to shore with a board under her arm. She walked up to a group of people and started animatedly signing. Steve almost hated to intrude, but Danny shoved him from behind towards the group.

Arianna caught sight of him when he was about twenty feet away. From her smile, Steve knew his presence was welcome. Arianna signed something to her friends then jogged towards him.

"So, you decided to join us after all," she said as she got close enough.

He waited till she was next to him before replying. "No, we're still in the middle of a case. Max called. I picked up the test results." He pointed to the envelope in his hand.

"Did you read it?" she asked nervously.

"I wanted to wait till we could open it together," Steve said.

Arianna drew a deep breath and let it out with a whoosh. "Okay. I'm ready, are you?"

Steve's answer was to pull out his pocket knife and split the seam. Pulling out the papers, he made sure they could read them at the same time.

"So what now?" Arianna asked him, biting her lip.

"Now, you go and finish having a good time with your friends, I'm going to return to work and you'll call me tonight when you get back to the hotel," Steve directed. Saying he was surprised when she hugged him and placed a quick kiss on his cheek would have been putting it mildly.

Danny knew from the _Cat Who Got the Canary_ face what the results were. "Congratulations! It's a Girl," he exclaimed, slapping Steve on the back.

Steve's face got impossibly smugger. "Yeah. Yeah it is!"

He didn't have too much time cherish the moment because Catherine called saying they'd got a hit from the faxes. One of the centers identified the second man as Trevor Pierce. Chin and Kono were on their way to pick him up. Steve and Danny headed back to HQ.

Pierce proved to be extremely helpful. With his dad's encouragement, the young man told them everything. He'd met Mal at the center where the older man was volunteering (read casing). Trevor thought Mal was his friend and when the man wanted to introduce Trevor to Kenny, Trevor was excited to meet his friend's friend. Kenny and Mal aka. George, had told him they had a game where they'd been hired to test the security systems of these jewelry stores and they were suppose to take a certain number of items from each place and since Pierce was so good with numbers, they could really use his help. He told them Kenny and Mal were living in a house in Pearl City. They were there before the game started. He couldn't give an address or tell the team how to get there, but he could show them because he remembered the land marks. By the looks everyone was wearing, it was clear the team felt for Pierce and knew he'd been conned because of his abilities.

With a somewhat open ended search warrant (boy, had that taken all of Danny's extensive verbal and persuasion skills to get the judge to issue one) they set out for Pearl City. Chin and Catherine were in the lead with Trevor and his dad because the young man refused to get into the back seat of the Camaro, citing statistics about fatalities in sports cars versus all other cars.

With an open line of communication between the vehicles, Steve and Danny followed behind listening to directions; turn right at the blue house with the fence, go three houses past the yellow house with the lawn ornaments, turn left at the car wash then right after the McDonalds. Two HPD units out of the Pearl City station joined them sometime after the car wash.

The take down, such as it was, was pathetically easy. Danny and Steve went to the front, Chin and HPD to the back. Danny peeked through the front window to see Ryder and Tanaka sleeping in the living room with the stolen goods sitting between them on a battered coffee table. Steve knocked, quietly, then told everyone to move in. Tanaka didn't even wake up until Steve kicked the side of the of his chair. The two crooks were turned over to HPD for processing and Trevor was taken back to Honolulu to be booked.

Leaving Chin and Catherine to follow through with the booking, Steve and Danny went straight to the offices. Normally they would have left the drudge work to HPD but the members of Five-0 wanted to make sure Trevor Pierce was okay. They'd all grown to like him in the short time they'd known him.

Steve had barely settled into his chair when his phone chimed.

_Download the following app to ur phone so I can call u 2nite. Sometimes my speech isn't very clear over the phone and this will help if u can't understand me. the app is called ClearCaptions_

_This isn't some trick to get me to load stupid cat pictures or continual thoughts for the day, is it._

_Nah, but u may not want to have it running if ur girlfriend is going to talk dirty to u, especially if ur in a place where someone could over hear._

_Copy that. talk 2 u l8r_

Steve went to the app store to find out what this program was all about. Not that he didn't trust Arianna, but the girl did have a tendency for mischief. To his relief, he found it was an app that translated the spoken word from a phone call into text, enabling the hard of hearing and the deaf to use their phones without video chat. He quickly downloaded it and then called Danny to see how it worked.

Seeing the detective frown at his phone when he saw who was calling, Steve almost giggled.

"Steven. What exactly is it that you have to tell me that is so important you had to call me rather than waiting the 2.4 seconds necessary to walk from your office to mine to tell me in person?"

"Wanted to check out my new app. It's cool. Translated everything you just said perfectly, sans the sarcasm. Course it took it a second or two to catch up with you. Didn't realize how fast you actually speak until now," was Steve's convoluted reply.

"Okay, I'll bite. Exactly what app are you talking about? Are you now translating English to Mandarin so you can brush up on your skills?"

"Funny. No. It's an app Arianna uses that translates everything to text so she can use the phone instead of video chat. She reads what the other person is saying and then replies verbally. I can do the same or use speaker phone to talk and only read if I can't understand her. She says sometimes her voice is hard to understand. Pretty cool, huh?" Steve sounded like a kid at Christmas.

"Yeah. Just don't leave it on if you want some privacy," Danny warned.

"Yeah, Arianna said that too."

"Wise woman. Well, if you're done playing with your new toy, we both have paperwork to do," Danny grumbled.

Steve made his kicked puppy face through the windows and hung up. Danny may or may not have checked out the app for himself.

By the time everyone returned from their respective tasks, the team was ready to call it quits for the day. Catherine followed Steve to the cars, waving at her departing teammates.

"So you gonna survive the weekend without me, sailor?" she teased.

"It'll be tough, but I'll probably survive," Steve snarked.

"You got big plans with Danny this weekend?"

"Nothing set in concrete. He mentioned the zoo and Grace wanting me to join them so I wouldn't be alone the whole weekend," he replied.

"That'll be fun. Keep you out of trouble," she teased again.

"That's what Grace said too," he told her looking chagrined.

With a quick kiss, the pair parted. Catherine watched him in the rearview mirror as he climbed in the truck. Despite his explanations, she still felt like he was holding something back.

Steve decided a swim was in order when he made it back to the house. It would settle his nerves and keep his mind occupied while he waited for Arianna to call. By the time he made it back to shore his muscles were quivering in a good way, a pleasant exhaustion seeping into his bones. He checked his phone for missed calls, finding none (it was only a little after seven), he headed for the shower. He was in the middle of fixing a sandwich for supper when his phone rang. To his disappointment, it was Danny.

"So, how was Australia?" Danny asked in lieu of a greeting.

Momentarily confused Steve repeated, "Australia?"

"I figured with the amount of keyed up energy you had today, you'd have swum to Australia and back by now," Danny chuckled.

"I might have went a little farther than normal, but not that far," Steve conceded.

"I figured. So about this weekend. You still up for the zoo with Monkey and me?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure of Arianna's plans," Steve said.

"Invite her along," Danny replied, the _duh_ implied.

"Danny, she's said she isn't ready to meet ohana yet," Steve reminded him.

"Invite her anyway. She may have changed her mind. Pick you guys up, Saturday at ten sharp. Oh wait, all four of us can't fit in the Camaro. You pick us up in the truck. Don't be late. The world and monkeys await for no SEAL nor his pup ," Danny declared then hung up.

Shaking his head at his the detective's machinations, Steve plopped down on the couch while grabbing the remote. Surely he could find something to watch with over two hundred channels to choose from. By eight thirty he was bored out of his skull, he'd been so wrong with his high estimation of the television offerings. Grabbing a random book from the shelf he sat down to find he was about to read Hunt for Red October for the fourth time.

He must have dozed off because the chime from his phone startled him.

_Sorry gonna b near 10 b4 can call. Small emergency. Dont worry i fine. Will explain when i call_

_Anything i can do? U sure u ok? _He sent back.

_I good PROMISE! unless u can set a broken arm then no. U cant set a broken arm can u?_

_Sadly no. Call when u can i'll be up_

_K. u kno it'd b real cool if u could set broken bones, might come in handy with the grandkids_

_Im not old enough to have grandkids not for another 15 years!_

_keep tellin urself that_

_Brat_

_LOL_

Steve looked at his watch, 9:30. He might as well head for bed. Better to doze off there than the couch. He made his rounds, set the security system and went upstairs. Even though he loved having Catherine in his house and in his bed, there were times when it's nice to have an entire bed to himself. Too many years bunking too close to too many teammates can lead on to have a bit of spacial issues when it comes to a proper bed. He piled all the pillows in the middle, grabbed one of the sign language books and lounged back, nervously waiting for Arianna to call.

Ten o'clock came and went. By 10:25 Steve was ready to jump in his truck and go find his wayward daughter. He was half way to putting his pants on when the phone rang at 10:28.

"Sorry. I'm so sorry," were the first words he heard.

"It's okay. Are you sure you're okay," he asked.

"Yeah, just a long night. Ellie's son fell on a concrete parking block and broke his left arm as we were leaving the beach. I got the great joy of watching her other three while Ellie and Jim were in with the kid," Arianna explained.

"The boy going to be okay and was that sarcasm I heard in your voice?" Steve asked.

"He'll be okay, kid's resilient and yes that was sarcasm," she snorted.

"You don't like kids? Why'd you become a teacher if you don't like kids?" Steve question.

"Oh, I like kids, I just don't like those three hooligans," she claimed.

"They can't be that bad," Steve stated.

"Remind me to introduce you to them. Gives a whole new meaning to the terrible twos."

"Exactly how old is this friend of yours that she already has four kids?" Steve inquired.

"She's two years older than me. She had the devil when she was eighteen and the hooligans when she was twenty, they're triplets," Arianna rattled off. "See, you could have grandkids already."

"No one's calling me grandpa before I'm forty-five," Steve insisted.

"Okay, forty-five. Got it, Sir," Arianna repeated.

"Don't you forget it. What time do you want to meet tomorrow?" Steve asked, changing the topic.

"How about lunch time, say 12:30? I'll bring sandwiches and we can eat in on the lanai, assuming it's still there," she suggested.

"My partner and his daughter invited me to go to the zoo with them day after tomorrow and they'd like you to come too," Steve said hesitantly.

"Your partner, Danny? He's the one that eased dropped, right?"

"That would be the one and only," Steve confirmed.

"So, Saturday at the zoo, I don't know. Can I think about it?" she asked, her unease evident.

"Sure, not a problem. Oh, I need the address again. It's been a long time," Steve told her.

"It's 1940 Thurston. So I'll see you tomorrow then," she stated, her voice stilted.

Realizing he'd made her uncomfortable with the invitation, Steve wished he could take it back. "I'll be there with the truck on the off chance we might run into some garbage that'll need to be hauled away."

"Hadn't thought about that. Thanks. So, good night then," she replied.

"See you tomorrow. Night," Steve answered. It was several seconds before Arianna ended the call. Steve sighed, praying he hadn't pushed her too much. A long time passed before he fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Friday Morning brought a storm with it. The rolling thunder and torrential downpour fit his mood. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd taken a million steps backwards in his burgeoning relationship with his daughter. He was thankful she still wanted to have him there when she went to the house. Steve turned on the weather while he was dressing, making note that the current downpour was suppose to let up by mid-morning. Maybe the improved weather would improve his mood. The drive in to HQ didn't, the rain making everyone a crazy driver. By the time he hit the doors he was not only soaked to the skin but he'd went from grumpy to churlish. He couldn't wait to get to his spare set of clothes and get dry.

Apparently he wasn't the only one having a rough morning. Danny was in the process of buttoning up a dry shirt, grousing about the lake that was apparently occupying his front lawn. Yeah, great day. Maybe the weather would deter the criminal population. They could only hope.

Kono met him at the tech table. "ADA Kioki wants to meet with you and Danny at 10:00 to go over the Chartrand case."

Steve scrubbed his hand over his face and took a deep breath. "Did he happen to say why we need to go over that particular case again?"

"Nope. Ah, come on, boss, give the guy a break. It's his first big case and he is trying to make sure he's go all his i's dotted and t's crossed."

"I'm pretty sure we did that four meetings ago," Steve moaned.

"Suck it up, boss man," Kono ordered unsympathetically.

"You told Danny yet?"

Kono blanched. "Are you kidding? I do have a healthy sense of self preservation."

"Maybe we can lock him in his office and phone him," Steve suggested.

Kono shook her head. "That won't work. The walls are made of glass, remember. Again, suck it up, boss."

Steve gave her a sour look before saying, "I'm going to change my clothes first. Maybe he won't throw something at me if he sees I'm in clean clothes?"

"I never took you for a coward," Kono cackled, heading for her office.

Steve grabbed his spare clothes from his desk then walked to Danny's office. The man's door was open and he looked right at Steve when the SEAL reached the doorway. So much for chickening out. "Hey, partner. I'm gonna run down to the gym and change. I'll be back in a few. Oh, by the way, ADA Kioki wants to meet about the Chartrand case again. We'll leave at 9:30, 'kay." With that, Steve took off like his shoes were on fire. It still wasn't fast enough to keep him from hearing, "That anal retentive son of a" before he was out of ear shot.

Steve would readily admit that he took his time drying off and changing. The last two times they'd met with Kioki, he had to physically restrain Danny to prevent the shorter man from punching the wall in frustration. It was going to be a long morning. At least this time he had Arianna as an excuse to keep the meeting to two hours rather than Kioki's standard four.

By the time Steve made his way back upstairs, Danny's category 5 rant had downgraded to a category 2. Though he'd admit he'd dallied, Steve would deny that he tiptoed past his friend's office while simultaneously trying to blend into the walls. By the time they needed leave, Danny had a tight handle on his ire. It helped that Steve offered his pick-up as their mode of transportation and that the rain had stopped.

The whole meeting was as terrible as both men expected. ADA Kioki was the epitome of OCD, something neither Steve nor Danny had the patience for. By the time they'd went through their testimonies for the umpteenth time, Steve was ready to pull his hair out and Danny was reciting Jets football scores under his breath. Thank goodness the trial started a week from Monday. At twelve, Steve called it quits, promising to address, by phone, any other concerns the lawyer might have next week.

Danny already knew about Steve's appointment with Arianna so he wasn't surprised when his partner pulled out his phone the minute they reached the truck after making sure Danny didn't have anywhere he had to be.

"Hey, um, I got held up in a meeting and if I run Danny back to the office, I'll be late. That okay?" Steve said when Arianna answered the phone.

There was a long stretch of silence on Steve's part before he spoke again, "Are you sure?" More waiting for the reply. "Okay. We'll see you in a little bit," Steve said.

Putting his phone in his pocket, turned to Danny. "I guess you're going to meet my daughter."

"It'll be an honor," Danny replied solemnly.

The partners pulled into the drive of 1940 Thurston Ave. to find a dejected looking Arianna sitting cross legged in the middle of the lawn, staring forlornly at the house. Her purse and two grocery bags sat next to her, barely within the shade line that dissected the grass. Trying not to scare her, Steve walked in front of her so that his shadow would cross her site line before he physically reached her. She squinted up at him as he came closer.

"Arianna, are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

"Yeah, it's just, well, it's just this," she said waving her arm to encompass the entire front of the house.

Steve swiveled around. "This" he understood to be the condition of the exterior; peeling paint, missing step and overgrown vegetation hiding who knew what. Facing her again, all he could say was, "Oh, sweetheart."

Stiffening her spine, she tossed the keys to Steve then reached down, grabbed her stuff and pointed at Danny. "Let's get this over with. Introductions can be made inside," she declared.

Steve took his cue. Motioning to Danny to follow them, he walked to the steps and jumped up on the porch. Danny had already taken the bags from Arianna and had moved behind her to assist should she need it in getting over the missing stair. Like her father, she too leapt up. Danny passed the bags back and joined them.

The door was solid and the lock secure, but Steve still made a mental note to make sure the house was rekeyed before Arianna moved in. Who knew how many people had keys to the place. Glancing to the young woman behind him, he realized she was already braced for the worst, so he opened the door. Surprisingly enough the inside was in decent shape. It too need a fresh coat of paint, but it was clean, everything had been well taken care of. Arianna's sigh of relief echoed through the house.

Spinning on her heal, Arianna stuck her hand out for Danny to shake and said, "Hi, I'm Arianna, Steve's twenty year old daughter and you are Detective Williams, his partner. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Taken back by her forthrightness, Danny forgot to even try to sign. "Are you always this blunt?"

"Yes. Now how about we eat these sandwiches before the mayo becomes less than wonderful," she said.

Steve couldn't help laughing at the expression on his friend's face. He had a feeling Danny had finally met his match. Arianna proceeded them to the lanai, trying very hard to quell the look of disgust she got upon seeing the condition of the backyard. At least the outdoor furniture was serviceable.

Once they were seated and the sandwiches had been passed out, Arianna directed her attention to Danny. "Sorry about that, it was rude. My excuse is that I expected for a thousand dollars a month, someone would have told my mother that the place needed some work."

"It's okay, being you're Steve's kid, I expected nothing less," Danny replied.

"Hey," Steve objected.

Arianna sported an impish grin. Leaning into Danny, she stage whispered, "We're going to be good friends, I can tell."

"Great! My partner and my daughter are in cahoots with each other. Could my life get anymore difficult?" Steve asked the air.

Arianna turned to him, devilish grin firmly in place, and said, "One word, grandkids." Steve blanched. Danny barked out a belly laugh.

The young woman turned her attention back to Danny. "Steve tells me you sign."

"Some. I'm a bit rusty," Danny replied verbally and in sign.

"If you can remember the sign for 'rusty' then you're not that out of practice," she stated. "Speaking of which, I see you've been making good use of those books you bought," she continued, switching her attention back to Steve. Danny made a mental note to record this day in his desk diary, SuperSEAL blushed.

"I'm trying," Steve admitted.

"You're doing really good," she assured him. "I should probably come up with a name sign for you. Finger spelling is getting old. Danny, what was the name sign your friend gave you?"

Danny quickly demonstrated the finger letter 'd' on the side of his head, sweeping his hair back.

Arianna watched, wide eyed. "And you're okay with that?"

Danny shrugged one shoulder. "It's a noticeable part of my person. Always has been."

Touching Arianna's arm, Steve interrupted, "Okay, you want to let the novice in on the conversation."

"Sorry. Name signs are very personal. Danny's suggests that whoever gave it to him thought he is vain about his hair," she explained.

Watching the expressions pass across his friend's face, Danny mad a pre-emptive strike, "Don't, Steven. Just don't."

Steve contained himself, barely. Instead, he asked, "Do you have anything in mind for me?"

Arianna pretended to consider his question for a moment before she could no longer hide the sparkle in her eyes. "Most definitely."

"Why do I think I'm not going to like this but Danny will enjoy it immensely?" Steve asked with trepidation.

Arianna chortled, "Your sign is the letter 's' picking on your left bicep," demonstrating the action. Danny immediately started laughing.

"All right. What's so funny about it," Steve asked indignantly.

Danny reigned himself in enough to respond vocally as well as sign, "This is part of the sign for tattoo or body art, so she is making a point to..."

"Emphasize my tattoos," Steve interrupted, "I'm okay with that."

"That is some pretty impressive art," Arianna stated.

Steve cleared his throat in embarrassment. "We'd better get to it or Chin'll be sending out a search party."

Steve checked in with Chin after they'd finished their meal. The office was quiet, so he told the older man they were going to take a longer lunch and Chin and Kono should too. Steve asked Danny to check all the locks, the appliances, the electrics and water to make sure they were in working order while he went to the truck to get his tools and then to the garage to see if there was anything he could use to temporarily fix the front step. Arianna chose to explore the house to check on the condition of the rest of the rooms and furniture. She'd start at the back of the house to keep out of Danny's way.

Steve wasn't having much luck and was about to call it quits when a loud "Oh my word! That's disgusting!" reverberated across the house. It was said loud enough and filled with enough horror that he jogged towards the source. He arrived at the master bedroom to find Danny and Arianna blocking the doorway, both trying to control their gag reflexes. Peering over Danny's shoulder, Steve wanted to see the cause of his partner's fight to not break his streak. After getting a good view, even the SEAL couldn't stop the slight swell of nausea that rose it's ugly head.

Backing up into her father's body, Arianna declared, "I'm not touching that!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say we were at a crime scene," Danny casually stated, backing up as well.

Arianna turned to Steve and gave him a look that said "you'd better have a solution for this or I'm going to ask for emancipation."

"I've got gloves and masks in the truck. Danny and I'll haul it out and drop it off at the toxic waste bin," Steve announced.

Danny looked horrified, "Oh no, Steven, this one is on you. I'm getting anywhere near that thing."

"Come on, Danno, you've dealt with worse at actual crime scenes."

"I'm not so sure about that," Danny retorted, squinting at the offending object.

"Man up, Danno. I'll get the gear," Steve said. He came back to find neither of the two had moved.

"It's like a terrible car wreck. You don't want to look, but you can't seem to help yourself," Arianna divulged.

Handing Danny a set of gloves and a mask, Steve told Arianna to go hold the door open then pushed her down the hallway towards the living room. Despite Danny's kvetching, the pair soon had the toxic waste commonly known as a mattress and box spring, securely loaded in the back of the truck.

"When do you plan on moving in?" Danny asked as they wrapped up their inspection.

"I have the hotel room through Sunday night. I want to rekey the doors and scrub everything before I move in. I'm planning do that this weekend so I can get settled on Monday. I have the monitoring company coming to give me an estimate mid-morning Monday," Arianna replied.

Danny felt rather than saw the look of pride Steve had at the mention of rekeying the place. He anticipated the man's pout over Arianna having plans rather than going to the zoo with them. "Tell you what. Steve invited you to the zoo with us, right?" He waited for the affirmative nod then continued, "You spend the morning with us at the zoo, then Steve and I'll do the rekeying and you can rope Grace into helping start the cleaning. After we're done, we'll help clean too. We'll have it done in no time."

"That's a nice offer, Danny, but I'm positive your daughter is not going to want to help a total stranger scrub cupboards, walls and floors," Arianna replied.

"If you let her give you decorating advice, she'll jump at the chance," Danny assured.

Arianna swung her gazed between her father and his partner. "Okay, I'll go to the zoo with you, but if we don't finish on Saturday, there'd better be a contingent of workers here on Sunday to finish the job. I'm not moving into someone else's dirt," she conceded.

"Deal," Steve declared before anyone could throw more conditions on the time he was going to get to spend with his daughter.

Arianna looked around. "I think we're done here. Let's bail this place." She grabbed their garbage and her purse to head for the door.

Danny couldn't help but mutter something to the effect of "like father, like daughter and he says Grace is me," as he followed her out the door. Steve pretended not to hear him.

Arianna spun on her heal as she stopped near the truck. "What time tomorrow?"

"I'll pick you up about 9:30 so we get Danny and Grace at 10:00," Steve answered.

Arianna studied the man in front of her. "You can quit worrying. I'm looking forward to it, really I am."

"Good," Steve coughed out.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Nice to meet you, Danny. Thanks for the help today," Arianna said. She reached over to give Steve a quick hug and then started for the sidewalk.

It took Steve only a second to guess her intentions. He reached out, grabbed her arm and spun her around. When he was sure she was watching his lips, he said, "You are not riding the bus home. Get in the truck."

"I got here by bus," she announced, instantly regretting it.

"We've had this discussion. Get in the truck," Steve directed.

Peering around the stubborn man in front of her, she addressed his partner, "Is he always this aggravating?"

"Yes," came the quick reply accompanied with a 'what can you do' look.

Rounding on Steve again, Arianna huffed, "Fine, but we'll be revisiting this conversation."

"I've no doubt," Steve rejoined, opening the back door for her.

The drive back to the hotel was uncomfortable for everyone. Steve and Arianna sulked/pouted and Danny did his best to pretend he was anywhere else.

As they pulled up to the lobby doors, Danny swatted Steve on the arm and motioned with his head towards the backseat. Steve got the message and got out as Arianna did. Coming around the front of the truck, he caught her by the hand. "I'm sorry. This being a father thing is harder than I expected. My only experience is watching Danny with Grace," he said in way of an apology.

"It's okay. This isn't easy for me either. Mom wasn't all that attentive. I'm use to doing things on my own without anyone caring. I'm sorry too," she apologized.

"We'll work on it," Steve said.

"Okay," Arianna said, looking relieved.

"Do you have plans for dinner?" Steve asked, trying not to sound too needy.

Arianna smiled, "Yep. I'm having dinner with a tall, dark-haired, tattooed, SEAL who is also a cop, at his house."

"You are cheeky. I'll be here at 6:00." Arianna's comeback was a snapped salute.

Arianna watched as Steve climbed back into the truck and drove away. The happy feeling in her heart was new. Her mom had cared, but not like a mom, more like a friend or a sister. She hadn't worried over Arianna the way Steve did. Arianna found herself liking it. It was as if she finally had a parent, even if it was going to take some getting use to. She headed for her room with a light step.

"Did you apologize?" Danny asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.

"Of course I apologized, Danny," Steve snorted.

"Just checking. We are still working on your mammal to mammal communications, babe," Danny stated unrepentantly.

The rest of the afternoon passed with a flow of paperwork for the whole team, quitting time not coming any too early. By 5:05, HQ was empty and dark.

Steve stopped at the grocery store on his way to pick up Arianna. Since Catherine'd started mostly living with him, his larder was better stocked, but he had nothing on hand that could be immediately prepared. Wandering the aisles he pondered the new direction his life had taken this week. Monday morning life had been good. He and Cath were good, Mary was taking care of Joan better than he'd expected, Aunt Deb was hanging there, the team was back together and with his mother no one knows where, he didn't have to worry about her shenanigans. By Monday afternoon, he had a fully grown daughter and a whole new set of worries, but life was better. It really was. He left his musings and the store with barely enough time to make it by 6:00. They were going to have grilled fish and vegetables.

Arianna was again waiting in the lobby when he pulled up. She was lounging in a chair with her head buried in a book, her customary purse was sitting on her lap, but a reusable grocery bag sat on the floor at her feet. Steve walked towards her trying to get it so his shadow fell across her sight line but failed miserably. He had to reach down and tap the arm of the chair to get her attention.

Arianna's open delight at seeing surprised him in a good way. He doesn't remember a time anyone has looked so happy to see him unless you count the time he let Grace's dog out to do its business when Danny got stuck in court, but that was a dog so it doesn't really count.

"Ready to go?" he asked, offering a hand to help her up.

"Most definitely," she replied.

"What's in the grocery bag? I thought I was providing dinner?" Steve asked not being able to contain his curiosity.

Arianna beamed. "Dinner yes, but not dessert. I'm hoping you have eggs and veggie oil at home."

"I do," he confirmed, "but what's the dessert?"

"It's a surprise, but I'm positive you'll love it," she replied as she sauntered out towards the truck. Steve watched her as she climbed nimbly into the cab. He doesn't remember Jenny all that well, but he does remember she was a bit awkward in her movements, Arianna definitely got her athleticism from him. He was sure he was sporty a dopey grin as he too got into the pickup.

The pair were soon parking in the McGarrett driveway. Steve gave her the abbreviated tour before leading her to the kitchen.

"I've got fish and vegetables to grill. How long will your dessert take?" Steve asked.

Arianna did some quick calculations, "If I get it ready while you heat the grill, it should be done by the time dinner's ready. It'll need time to cool down. Hey you're not one of those that are all feast or famine when it comes to sweets are you?"

Steve shook his head. "I firmly believe in moderation."

Please at his answer, she firmly requested the item necessary to make her dessert then pushed him out towards the grill. Steve started the grill and came back to the kitchen to find his daughter pounding the daylights out a bag of peanut butter chips with a mallet he didn't even know he owned.

"If that's how you treat sweets, I'd hate to see what you'd do to an appetizer. Remind me to stay on your good side," he teased, pointing at the crushed chips.

"And you called me cheeky," she replied giving the bag one final pummel. "Don't you have some fish to fry?"

Taking the hint, he grabbed the fish and veggies, going back to his grill. He made quick work of getting them on because he wanted to see what Arianna was doing. Back in the kitchen, he found her pouring what looked like brownie batter into a cake pan. She looked up when he came in but didn't say anything so he leaned against the counter to continue his observation.

When she had about half the batter poured, Arianna set the bowl down and grabbed the crushed chips. She carefully distributed the morsels across the top of the poured batter. She then reached for the mixing bowl and poured the remainder of the batter. Digging in the grocery bag, she pulled out a jar of caramel sauce. Wrestling with the lid for a minute, she gave up and shoved it at Steve without saying anything. Once she got the opened jar back, she bobbed her head in thanks then proceeded to drizzle the sauce over the top of the batter. Very carefully she put the concoction into the oven, setting a timer she'd dug up.

"You're responsible for listening for the timer. Don't let them burn," she warned him, wagging her finger.

"Yes, Ma'am," he retorted. "Grab those plates. We can eat on the lanai."

"Aye, aye, Commander," she barked, making Steve laugh.

"This fish is really good. You didn't mention cooking when you listed your talents the other night," Arianna complimented after the first bite.

"Thanks. I'm not the best, but I do know my way around the kitchen," Steve told her.

"I can cook but I don't like to, except for brownies and stir fry," she admitted.

"Well when you get settled, it'll be your turn and you can fix stir fry," Steve suggested.

"Deal."

"So any word on when you start to work?" Steve asked.

"Nothing yet but the lady did say she expected this baby to come early so maybe a couple of weeks," she guessed.

"That will give you time to settle into the house."

"Yeah. Hopefully my stuff will get here before I have to start. I'd really like to have time to unpack," she said.

"Let me know if you need help getting it from the shipping container. We have enough ohana around that no matter how much you have we'd be able to move it in one trip," Steve said.

"Thanks. I don't have a lot, about a dozen or so boxes. The only big stuff I have is my hope chest, Mom's bookcase and my bike. If you trust me to use the truck again, it would all fit in one load."

"Well, let me know. You can't lift a hope chest on your own. I've been meaning to ask, back at the house you mentioned a monitoring system," he said, not really asking.

"Yeah. There are systems that you can get to make life a little easier when you're hearing impaired. They have flashing lights for door bells, fire alarms and landline phones. You can get one that will vibrate the bed at night as well as flash the lights. That's a handy one if you're a light sleeper. Some systems come with computer monitors that give all kinds of readings," she relayed.

"But it's not a security system though?" Steve asked.

"Not really but I imagine you can upgrade it to include that as well."

Steve looked uncomfortable. When he didn't say anything, Arianna forced his hand. "Spit it out. What are you trying not to say."

The SEAL squirmed in his chair. "The team and I are somewhat high profile figures on the island."

"Yeah, so."

"Well, there are a lot of bad guys out there that might at one point want to seek revenge. Since you're my daughter, that makes you a potential target."

Arianna visibly swallowed. "Okay."

"I think you should get the upgrade with the full security system," Steve stated.

"Dually noted."

Steve was about to ask what she meant by that when the timer went off for the oven. Arianna jumped up to take care of their dessert. Before he could say any more, she asked, "How's the water in the cove?"

"Good. You want to go for a swim before dessert? I'm pretty sure one of Cath's suits would fit you," Steve said, taking the hint.

"Oh, I brought my own. I did live in Hawaii before you know. Never go anywhere without a suit," she proclaimed.

"I'll go get my trunks. You can use the bathroom downstairs to change," Steve said.

"Meet you back here in a minute then," she answered already heading inside.

Striding out of the house, Steve caught site of his daughter standing on the little strip of sand and was immediately struck by three things. First, the ink that covered a fair portion of her back. As he drew closer, he whistled at the impressive Celtic cross adorned with shamrocks. Second, and most important, he needed to invest in a decent bat. In that moment it hit him like a ton of bricks and all of Danny's rants about Grace and boys made perfect sense. He'd need the bat to fend off all the potential suitors. He barely resisted the urge to race back to the house to find a long sleeve shirt to cover up his little girl. Third, how could he have been so blind when he'd met her at the beach the other day. He quickly chalked it up to nerves and the fact that she'd been wearing a body suit for surfing.

Arianna turned as he stepped up beside her. "What's with the face?"

"What face?" he asked, trying to stall from really answering.

She pointed at him, making an air circle around his head. "That face. The one that's a cross between 'I'm going to take someone down and I've just been pole axed."

"What is with you and Danny categorizing my faces? It's disturbing."

"Can't help if you're very expression.. able," she shot back.

"Pot, meet kettle," he retorted.

"Would never deny it," she laughed. "Now show me what you got, oh paternal one." With that she ran out and made a quick dive.

Arianna hadn't been bragging. She could swim like a fish. The only thing that prevented her from keeping up with Steve was the fact she was a little rusty about swimming in moving water. Steve figured if they kept this up, she'd match him stroke for stroke within a couple of weeks. His heart swelled with pride.

Before long, it was time to head back in. They didn't want to stay out too late since they were going to the zoo and cleaning a house tomorrow. Arianna limited herself to one brownie, while Steve snuck two. Much to his chagrin, she made him promise to leave enough to share with Danny and Grace. If he stole one more before he hit the sack, well he could always say it hit the floor when he was putting them in the ziploc for their picnic.


	9. Chapter 9

Saturday dawned in spectacular fashion. The rain that'd blown through in the night gone and the sky was clear and blue. Danny and Grace sat on the front porch waiting for Steve and Arianna. Danny had gotten permission from the pair to tell Grace the basics. Being a kid, she took the situation at face value. She'd been more concerned about the fact she only knew the ASL alphabet and that finger spelling would get old quickly. Danny assured her of Arianna's lip reading capabilities and promised to teach her what he could remember of signing.

Steve and Arianna pulled up as Danny was showing Grace his name sign and explaining that maybe Grace would get one of her own. Minor chaos ensued during introductions and discussions about where everyone would sit. Arianna insisted on sitting in back with Grace, muttering something about 'respecting one's elders, age before beauty and all that' as she climbed in watching the two men carefully. Grace and she broke into gales of laughter at the guys response when the words finally sunk in. "Hey!" Neither partner missed the fist bump between the two girls. All worries over whether they'd all get along vanished.

When it came time to pay for admission, Danny and Grace went first then stood back to watch the fireworks show as Steve argued with his daughter over who'd pay for what.

"Grace remember when you were studying unstoppable forces and immovable objects in science and you asked me what that would be like?" Danny questioned.

"Yeah," Grace replied.

Gesturing to the pair still at the admittance gate, Danny said, "That's what it looks like. Also mark this day down for history as you've witnessed a miracle as well." When Grace cocked her head in confusion, Danny elaborated, "Uncle Steve has his wallet and is paying for something." Grace gave in to the giggles she'd been trying to hold back.

"This conversation is not done, young lady," Steve barked at his daughter as the duo stomped over to join their party.

"Again, you keep telling yourself that," Arianna growled back.

Danny waved, then clapped his hands loudly. "Great, now I have three kids to escort through the zoo," he exclaimed. The twin guilty looks mollified him and the quartet started on their way.

It had been years since Arianna had been to a zoo, so she was as excited as Grace to see all the animals. The pair running ahead to the exhibits, pointing and laughing at the antics of the inhabitants, grabbing their dads' arms to guide the men (who were moving too slowly for the girls' liking) to see one thing or another. Arianna took the time at each habitation to show the other three the sign for the animal. Grace and she recorded the ones Arianna didn't know so they could look them up later. The group had made it three quarters of the way through the park when Danny called for a liquid break.

Danny took Grace and Steve's orders, Arianna declined, stating she was fine. Danny wanted to say something and Steve started to say something, but Danny's stopped him with a hand to his friends arm. He could read the look on the younger woman's face and knew a storm was brewing. For all his disregard of lines and boundaries, Danny knew both he and Steve needed to back off this time. With a small shake of his head he hoped he conveyed the message 'Let it go" to Steve.

Steve sighed as he watched Arianna sit quietly while the others finished up their drinks. He'd wisely listened to Danny and let the matter go, but he couldn't dismiss the feeling that there was more to the admissions argument and the water refusal. He was broken out of his musings by Grace's declaration.

"The reptile house is next," she informed them.

Arianna's face went from annoyed to frantic, bordering on terror in .2 seconds. "You guys go ahead, I'm going to sit this one out."

"You're not coming with us?" Grace asked, clearly disappointed. "You'll miss all the turtles, snakes and lizards. Oh and the Komodo Dragon."

"I know but I think I over did it with swimming last night and my muscles are tired," she replied, knowing it sounded weak.

Since he'd been studying her, Steve had seen her discomfort. He came to her rescue. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We did push pretty hard and we still have a house to clean. Grace, why don't you and Danno go on and we'll sit out here."

"Oh, okay." Grace looked so sad it made Arianna's heart break.

"On second thought, I haven't been here in years. I should probably see it all," Arianna stated, standing up but grabbing on to Steve's hand.

"Yay! Come on! Let's go," Grace ordered.

Danny wisely took the lead with Grace, giving their companions some privacy.

"What are you afraid of?" Steve asked.

"Turtles," was the surprising specific reply. Stunned, Steve could only gape.

"I know it's stupid, but they terrify me," Arianna said defensively.

"No, it's not that. I expected you to evade answering is all. How bout this? I'm fairly familiar with the layout so I'll give you fair warning and you can close your eyes or turn. I'll even block what I can," Steve suggested

"Yeah, that should work," she said slowly.

"You don't have to do this. Grace will understand."

"No, I'll be okay. Just promise to do as you said," she replied sounding a bit more confident.

"Promise."

The plan worked fine up until near the end. The zoo had changed up the exhibit and before he could warn her, Arianna spun around at Grace's excited tugging, to be confronted with a giant Asian pond turtle. Only Steve's quick reflexes kept her from knocking over another couple and a small child as she instinctively backed up. He grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her, burying her face in his shoulder. She was stiff as a board and silently screaming into his shirt. Danny guided people around them and rubbed his hand up and down her back, hoping to add to the comfort Steve was giving.

As she began to relax, Steve gently guided her out of the reptile house, keeping her face firmly pressed into him while letting Danny and Grace break the path. Danny was obviously explaining and reassuring Grace, but Steve was too concerned with the girl in his arms to pay attention to what was being said. Danny led them to a secluded corner off the walkway. There was a low retaining wall and Steve coaxed Arianna into sitting down while he retained his firm hold on her. Grace slid next to her, pulling the older girl's hand free of Steve's shirt, wrapping it around her own. Grace began to finger spell into Arianna's palm. Whatever she was communicating, it was working. Arianna gradually relaxed against Steve and eventually pulled her head up to reveal a tear streaked face.

"Thank you, Grace," she whispered.

Knowing he'd probably never learn what Grace had told Arianna, Steve silently gave thanks for the little girl's empathy. "How about we get out of here, grab some lunch and then get to cleaning?" he suggested.

Everyone readily agreed. Danny deliberately started a debate over what to have for lunch to distract them all. It was decided Thai sounded the best and since Arianna didn't have any plates yet, they'd eat in before heading over to the house.

"This is my treat," Arianna insisted. "Don't worry. You're going to earn it this afternoon, so accept it and shut up." She glared at the two men, daring them to speak. Danny looked at Steve and Steve looked at Danny before returning their gaze to the defiant woman in front of them. Danny waved his hands in acquiescence and Steve crossed his arm over his chest and grunted.

"You know, I can't hear you right?" Arianna teased.

The half smile he gave her was all the answer she needed.

The restaurant wasn't particularly busy so they were quickly seated and their orders placed just as fast.

"Danno, I need to use the ladies room," Grace said.

"All right, monkey," he answered, moving to stand.

Arianna stopped him. "I need to as well, Danny. I'll go with her."

The men watched their daughters make their way to the hallway leading to the bathrooms, eyes filled with love and pride.

"You two are lucky to have such lovely dates," the waitress said as she placed their drinks on the table. "It's obvious you're proud of your daughters."

"We are and thank you for the compliment," Danny responded to the grandmotherly looking woman.

"Which one belongs to you?" she asked.

"The younger one is mine and the older one is his," Danny said pointing at Steve.

The waitress examined Steve. "You don't look old enough to have a daughter that age, young man."

Steve's ears turned red with the compliment. "Thank you, but she's definitely mine."

"Is nice to see blended families," she said.

"Uh, thanks," Steve uttered.

"I'll be back in a jiff with your meals," she informed them, patting Danny on the shoulder.

Steve couldn't help himself, "Danno?"

"Yes, Steven."

"Did she say what I think she said?"

"Yes, Steven, yes she did."

"These marriage jokes are getting a little old, don't you think?" Steve asked, somewhat.

"Who's married?" Grace asked as the two girls sat down.

"No one's married, monkey. The waitress made a mistake," Danny answered.

"OH! Like the check out lady at the grocery store when we went with Uncle Steve," Grace clarified for herself.

"I think I'm missing something," Arianna said looking to each man for an explanation.

Danny waved his arm towards his partner, "This is all yours, babe."

Arianna turned to Steve. "Married?"

"It's, uh, well it's," Steve stumbled over his words.

Grace tugged on Arianna's arm to get her attention. "Uncle Steve and Danno argue a lot. It's so much that people tend to think they're married."

"Oh. I get it. So what you're saying is that you and I have two dads," Arianna said.

"Yes," Grace agreed, bobbing her head. The sputtered protests of the two men were cut off with the arrival of their meal.

The waitress departed with a, "You young ladies take good care of those dads of yours."

"We will," they answered almost in unison before breaking into peals of laughter.

The conversation while they ate centered around all the things that needed to be done at the house. They divided up the labor. Danny and Steve would get the measurements for the boards to fix the stairs, determine what type of locks and deadbolts were needed and head for the local hardware store. When they completed those tasks, they'd look into seeing what it would take to get the car running. Grace and Arianna would start cleaning in the common areas, make lists of things that would need to be purchased and make piles of things to either throw out or donate.

Danny walked into the kitchen to let the girls know he and Steve were heading out to the store, when the scene before him made him do a double take and then pull out his phone to take pictures. Both girls had their hair tied up in high pony tails with neon green bandanas covering the tops of their heads. Their hands were encased in bright pink polka dotted rubber gloves. Grace was standing on the counter handing out dishes of various kinds while Arianna steadied her with one hand, taking the offerings with the other, setting the dishes behind her in the sink.

Not wanting to startle them, Danny backed out of the room to get Steve. By the time they got back to the kitchen, both girls had rags in their hands, scrubbing hard at the dust, Grace the top shelves, Arianna the bottom. Steve took pictures too, but because Steve's camera app made a duck sound, Grace caught him in the act.

"If you know what's good for you, those pictures will never see the light of day," Arianna warned him.

"These will never leave my phone," Steve promised with a smirk. "We're headed out."

"Okay. Let me get my purse," Arianna said pulling off her gloves.

"What do you need your purse for?" Steve asked, obviously confused.

"I need to get the money to pay for the materials."

"Don't worry about it. I'll get them and you can pay me back," Steve said.

Arianna didn't look convinced at his earnest tone. "Danny, you make sure you get the receipt."

"Hey, don't you get me into this little tug-of-war you two have going on," Danny declared, backing up.

Arianna stood with her hands on her hips, glaring until he acquiesced. "Fine, I'll make sure I get a copy of the receipt. She must get the paying her way from her mother, cause she sure doesn't get it from you," he said, pointing at Steve. Steve protested and continued to as they walked out of the house.

Arianna swiveled her eyes between the two men and then looked up at Grace. "Are they still arguing?"

"Yup."

"I see what you mean." They went back to their cleaning. The place wasn't that bad and Grace proved to be a big help. The pair had the kitchen, living room, both bathrooms and the master bedroom done by the time the men made it back from the hardware store. Tired, the ladies settled in to heckle the handymen.

Steve's phone chimed as they finished nailing in the step. It was Catherine. He stepped over to the shade tree to answer. _Hey, sailor! Miss me?_

_Always_

_what r u doin?_

_A little house repair. _(he didn't want to lie to her)

_Sounds exciting. what's ur plans 4 rest of the day?_

_Gonna work on the car, then food, then bed_

_Zoo wear you out? U getting old?_

_Hardly._

_Sleep well. C u 2morrow._

_C u then._

"That was Catherine," Steve told them even though none of them had asked.

"Let's call it good for the day," Arianna said to fill the void Steve's remark had created.

"We still need to do your locks," Danny pointed out.

"I can change them out tomorrow if Steve will loan me some tools," she replied.

"It won't take long," Steve stated.

Realizing Steve really wanted to do this for her, she caved, "Fine, but after that we're done. It's been a long day and Grace and I smell like Pine Sol. I'm sure she wants a shower as badly as I do."

True to his word, it took the partners very little time to switch out the locks and deadbolts. Steve felt better knowing no one else had keys to his daughter's house. The look on his face when she handed him the spare set would always be engrained in her memory.

The route to drop off everyone went by Arianna's hotel first. Arianna had gotten the receipt from Danny and had the money ready in her hand as Steve walked her to the lobby.

"I'm not taking that," Steve announced.

"Yes, you are," she retorted.

"No, I'm not. I'm not taking your money," he bickered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't take charity."

Steve looked like she'd slapped him. "It's not charity. I'm your father."

"What has that got to do with anything. I didn't come looking for you in order to take advantage of you."

"Take advantage of me. Why would you say that? I'm your father. I have twenty years to make up for."

"So it's guilt money?" Arianna stepped back from him in distaste.

"What?! No! I want to help is all," Steve claimed.

"You did help. You do help. I don't want anyone thinking..." Arianna voice trailed off.

"No one would think that with the way you argue with me," Steve told her, reaching for her arm. "How 'bout a compromise?" She regarded him with a wary expression.

"From this point on, I'll do the manual labor and you pay for the parts. I'll clear any expenditures through you first."

It was a long moment before she stuck her hand out to shake. "Deal."

"I'll call you about tomorrow. I'd like to check out the car before you try to drive it," Steve told her.

"Fine," she responded, not quite ready to let the anger go.

Danny and Grace had watched the entire confrontation from the safety of the pickup. "Danno."

"Umm."

"Do you think if I'd videoed that my science teacher would have given me extra credit?"

"More than likely. You probably gotten double points for showing spontaneous combustion is also possible."

The pair barely quelled their chuckles before Steve made it back to the car. Steve sulked and the other two snickered the rest of the way. Steve made his way to the lanai with a beer after he'd gotten home. He couldn't leave things so tense with Arianna, so he pulled out his phone.

_Sorry. _

_Me too. _came the reply

_U still mad at your bull headed dad?_

_No. You still mad at your stubborn daughter?_

_No and you come by the stubborn honestly. Call u tomorrow?_

_Lol. Talk to u tomorrow. have a good night_

_U too._

Steve reflected on the day. Arianna's hard headed stance over the money and her reluctance to letting him help had him wondering if she really saw him as her father. Steve rubbed at the finger shaped bruises on his arm, remembering how tightly she'd clung to him, seeking comfort when she was scared. She hadn't leaned into Danny. Maybe she was getting there. It'd take time. Hell, he had to keep reminding himself. It'd only been not quite a week. They'd get there.


	10. Chapter 10

Sunday morning's run coincidentally took Steve right past Arianna's house on his way home and by chance, her keys had made it onto his key ring. It wouldn't hurt to stop in to see if the repairs for the stairs were holding and to check on the car to see if he'd need any parts before he could get it running. After yesterday, though he felt a little guilty so he dug out his phone and called her first.

"Hello." The sleepy answer told him he'd woke her up.

"Mornin', princess."

"Ugh. Let me guess, you've been up at least two hours," she groaned.

"Close. Quick question and I'll let you get back to sleep. Would you mind if I stopped and took a look at the car so I can see if I need anything before I work on it?" Steve asked hoping he didn't sound too pushy.

"Knock yourself out." The reply was so muffled, Steve had to use his new app to translate.

"Go back to sleep. I'll call you later." The translator couldn't decipher the response. Grinning, Steve let himself into the house and walked through to the garage.

Pulling back the car cover, Steve was pleasantly surprised to find an early model Chevy Aveo in good condition. The garage contained none of the tools he needed to do a thorough inspection, so he settled for checking the fluid levels, the battery, tire pressure and the like. He type a memo into his phone of what he needed to bring over, including a full gas can as the car showed barely over empty. Closing things up tight, he made his way back home.

Showered and dressed for the day, Steve was killing time until he thought he could get away with calling Arianna again so they could get to the house. For some reason, he was itching to work on the car for her. Luck would have it though, they got a call.

"Hey, Danny, we've got a case. Pick me up on the way," Steve stated, no preamble.

"We caught a case? At 7:30 on a Sunday morning? Don't criminals know that Sunday is the day of rest for most people?"

Steve didn't reply as he most of Danny's questions were rhetorical. "You can't tell me you weren't already up, Danno."

"That's besides the point, Steven. I may, of my own volition, be up _and_ dressed on this fine Sunday morning, but that does not mean that I want to be called out. I would much rather finish fixing my blueberry pancakes and sit reading the paper. I don't have anywhere to take Grace."

Steve was only half listening to his partner, but caught the important parts. "There's not a friend she can stay with?"

"Need I remind you, Steve, _it's Sunday_."

"Hey, do you trust Arianna? Maybe she can take Grace for the day. They seemed to get along."

"I don't know. Do you think that's such a good idea? Asking your newly and I repeat newly discovered daughter to babysit. That seems, well it just seems..." Danny was keen on the idea. He didn't want to start something like he'd had with his sisters when he and Rachel were ironing out visitation.

"Do you have any other options, Danny?" Steve asked reasonably.

"All right, call her and call me back."

After he hung up with Danny, Steve got a rare case of the nerves. Maybe it was a bit presumptuous asking Arianna to babysit. He'd backed himself into a corner, so he dialed.

"Morning," a less sleepy voice answered.

"I hope this is a more reasonable time," Steve teased.

"At least I'm up and dressed this time, but it's still too early to even think about doing work on the house," Arianna half growled.

"Yeah, about that. We've caught a case. I won't be able to help you with the place today," Steve explained.

"That's okay. Hope it's nothing serious. Maybe we can grab food later on," Arianna suggested.

"Yeah, that brings up the next topic. Danny has no one to take Grace to," Steve trailed off.

There was complete silence for sixty seconds before a huge sigh filtered through the phone. "Okay."

"Okay, what?" Sometimes Arianna's non sequiturs were harder to follow than Danny's.

"Okay, I'll watch Grace for him."

Steve smiled even though she couldn't see it. "Great. I'll have Danny pick you up and you can stay here for the day."

"What about your girlfriend?"

"Cath won't be back until tomorrow. They're doing some extra training this weekend."

"Fine, just don't expect me to do any extra chores for you while we're there and you'd better have the ingredients for cookies," she warned.

Steve chuckled, "No guarantee on that front, but I'll leave you the keys to the truck. Danny should be there in ten."

It was surprising how easy everything fell into place. Grace agreed that Arianna was fun to be with, the lure of Uncle Steve's beach not withstanding. Danny picked the young woman up on is way and soon the two girls were making plans to "not" destroy Steve's place and the partners were on their way to the crime scene.

The pair pulled up into the parking lot of the two story building that housed the Oahu Cultural Museum to find Chin's bike already there. Kono pulled in behind them. Making their way through the yellow tape, the trio found Chin talking to an officer outside of one of the galleries.

Catching Chin's attention, Steve motioned to the viewing hall. "Chin, what've we got?"

"Workers came in this morning to change out an exhibit and found these guys," Chin answered pointing to the three bodies on the floor. "It looks like all three were taken out by a single gunshot to the head. They're all dressed like cat burglars, all in black."

"So we have potential thieves, who were what, surprised by the night guard and taken out before they could complete the heist?" Danny surmised.

"That would be a good theory, but the night guards heard and saw nothing until the exhibit crew screamed and there's a painting missing. The coronation portrait of King Kamehameha IV."

"So there was a fourth thief and he got rid of his partners under the noses of the guards. It doesn't seem probable," Kono stated.

"I wouldn't say it was under their noses. The guards were watching a taped game with the volume up. They admitted they paid no attention to the monitors nor did they make their rounds. It seems they figured it was safe because nothing ever happens on the night shift," Chin explained.

"I know two night guards who are now unemployed," Danny added.

"No doubt. Do we have TOD?" Steve asked.

"Not yet, we're still waiting for the ME's office. We do know that the museum closed at four last night and all employees had left by 5:30." Chin had moved over to any empty space on the wall. "The portrait was cut right from the frame."

"Why go to the trouble? Why not take the frame and all? It seems simpler," Kono asked looking at the edges of the frame.

"It would, but each frame on the more priceless paintings are attached to motion sensors. Remove the frame from the wall and an alarm goes off," Chin informed them.

"The crooks must have disabled the alarms getting in or HPD and the night guards would've been alerted to the robbery," Steve stated.

Chin shook his head. "They deactivated the main alarms, but the ones for the paintings run on a separate system, that way the museum can keep security on them during their open hours and not have to worry about alarms going off at the doors."

"So our team gets inside without alerting security. One of them turns on the others, takes the time to shoot them all in the head, doesn't take the time to turn off the painting alarms, but does take the time to surgically remove a painting from it's frame presumably without destroying the painting or it's value. How is that even possible." Danny's diatribe summed everything up, the others could only nod.

An HPD office approached the small group. "Commander, the ME is here."

Steve nodded his thanks. "Kono, get with security to go over those tapes."

"We need to wait for the head of security before Kono can do that," Chin stated

Danny shot him a puzzled look. "Forgive the confusion, but who found the bodies? If they're here after hours, surely they have access to the security system."

Shaking his head, Chin replied, "You'd think so, but not in this case. The crew that found them is the archive curator and four of his assistants. The curator has the codes to disarm the door access and the individual displays, but he doesn't have the authority for the security room where the cameras and tapes are housed and before you ask, the night guards don't have access either."

"Okay, Kono, you wait out the head of security. Chin, see if you can get a list from the curator of employees an volunteers, anyone who has regular access to the museum. Danny and I will see if Max has anything yet and see if CSU has found anything," Steve directed.

The team separated to their various tasks. Before the partners could get over to Max, Danny's phone rang out with Grace's ring tone.

"Hey, monkey, what's up."

"Danno, would it be okay if Arianna and I went over to her house for a couple of hours. She wants to do a little more work before she moves in tomorrow. It won't be until this afternoon though cause we're making cookies. She wanted me to check 'cause we didn't ask earlier if it was okay for me to go in the car with her."

"That's fine. Send me a quick text when you go and when you come back though. Thank Arianna for checking with me. I appreciate it. Don't make too big a mess in Uncle Steve's kitchen."

"Thanks, Danno. I will and we won't. She's kind of a neat freak like Uncle Steve."

Danny chuckled at that. "Danno loves you, monkey."

"Love you too. Bye."

Steve stopped when his partner did, listening to the one side of the conversation. His raised eyebrows speaking volumes as Danny hung up.

"Grace wants to go over to Arianna's to do some more work later on. Right now, they're baking."

Steve was about to comment when his own phone chirped. _Where's ur fire extinguisher?_

Slightly alarmed, he started to type a hasty response when another message came in. _nvr mind found it. dont worry nothins on fire but like to be prepared unknown oven and all just yanking ur chain we're goooood_

_Did i ever tell u ur a brat?!_

_U mite hve mentioned it once b4_

_It still stands! Dont burn my house down._

_no worries, grace can hear the timer. B careful._

_Brat. will do_

"So are we ready to get back to this case?" Danny asked as Steve put his phone away.

"Yeah. Arianna got her mother's sense of humor."

"Well, since you don't have one, that only makes sense." Danny walked away to find Max and their dead bodies.

"Hey! I have a great sense of humor," Steve protested, jogging to keep up.

"You keep telling yourself that, Super SEAL."

They found the quirky ME bent over one of their three victims, robbers, it was difficult to label them.

"Good morning, Max," Danny called to him.

"Good morning, Detective, Commander," Max responded while handing an assistant the contents of victim number ones pockets. "If you don't mind, I'd like to dispense with our customary witty discourse as I have a spelunking meeting this afternoon that I do not want to miss."

Danny waved his arms in a proceed motion while saying, "By all means, Max. Let's not let three dead bodies get in the way of your spelunking."

"We have three male victims. Cause of death for all three, upon preliminary examination is a single GSW to the back of the head. TOD is approximately 2:30 a.m. All three appear to be in their early twenties. I'll be able to give a more accurate details when I get them back to the lab."

"Thanks, Max. Let's us know," Steve said.

"Will do, Commander."

"Hey, boss! You need to come see this." Kono's voice carried well through the museum, so well that Steve couldn't pin point her location.

"Kono, where are you?"

"Security office. Through the gallery you're in, make a left and then a right at the bronze Hawaiian warrior sculpture. Can't miss me."

The two men followed the directions as they'd been called out. Danny absolutely didn't give in to the urge to yell, "Marco," but he may have said it a little bit louder than normal. "Polo," quickly followed. Steve smacked his arm.

Finding her right where she promised, Steve took the initiative. "What you got, Kono?"

"Some pretty brazen thieves. Take a look." The security guard hit play for the newcomers.

The three watched four men, dressed all in black with face masks, saunter up to the employee entrance, punch in a code and make their way to the gallery housing the stolen portrait without hesitation.

"Well, that explains how they by passed the alarms," Danny noted.

Their crooks pulled out a small contraption they slid behind the frame then removed the whole piece from the wall. Two of them went to work, quickly freeing the canvas from the frame, rolling it up and placing it in a cylinder that had been slung across his back. The frame was put back into place and the device was pulled back and pocketed. One of the perps was obviously the boss as all he did was stand and gesture to the other three. They were moving towards the exit when one of the group, not the boss, stopped, letting the other three get a few paces in front. He or she must have said something at that point because the other three froze. Before any of them could turn around, the guy in the back executed them. He grabbed the canister, used it to angle the camera away from the bodies and then presumably walked out of the building.

"Clever trick, moving the camera enough," Kono muttered.

"Hey, can you rewind to just before the shots?" Danny asked the museum employee.

"You see something, Danno?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. Watch the guy on the far left. He's got something in his hand and..." Danny cut off as the screen came back to life at the point requested. "Watch the object."

The three teammates watched as the object in the man's hand flew out and skidded across the floor at moment of impact.

"What was that? Where'd it go?" Kono questioned.

"Can you get a better angle on this?" Steve asked their helper.

"Sorry, man. That's the best we got."

"Run that part again," Danny instructed.

After the third time, Danny looked to Steve. "I think we can approximate where it went. Let's go see if the techs have found it." He didn't wait for his partner to follow.

"Kono get that film over to the lab, see if Charlie can get us anymore from it. Then get with Chin. See if he's got the employee list yet. If they knew the code..."

"They probably work here or know someone who does," Kono finished. "Can you tell us whose code was used?"

The chief of security glanced at her sheepishly. "I can't. All I know how to do is run the cameras. We'll have to get our computer guy in here to go through the key code logs."

"Where is your computer guy?" Steve asked.

"How should I know. It's the guy's day off. He's not scheduled till Tuesday," the security guy stated mulishly.

"Do you have a record of personal cell phones. We'll get in touch with him and see if we can convince him to come in early," Steve said.

"Terri doesn't have a cell. Says he works with computers all day and he would rather be unplugged when he's not on duty," the guard haughtily stated.

"Well, if you'd be so kind as to give Office Kalakaua the man's full name and his house phone, she'll try him until she reaches him," Steve said ignoring the taunt. "Kono."

"On it, boss."

Danny was already talking to the techs by the time Steve caught up with him. He glanced at his partner as the man approached. "They haven't found it yet."

"Okay, let's see," Steve said, standing in the location where their victim had been. Max already had that body in the transport van. Steve made the same gesture as their victim, tossing a small notebook he'd borrowed from one of the techs. Danny watched the arc and followed the item over to a bust of woman sitting on an oversized pedestal with clawed feet about fifteen feet from where Steve stood. Pulling out his gloves, Danny got down on hands and knees to peer under the piece.

"Ah. Look what we have here. Ladies and gentlemen we have a pencil, minus eraser, our notebook, a flyer, a metric ton of dust bunnies and best of all, a cell phone."

Steve shook out an evidence bag so Danny could drop the item in. Handing it over to a tech for processing, he turned to his friend. "Let's go see what Chin's got. It may be a long shot since the shooter was wearing gloves, but I want everyone who discovered the bodies to be tested for GSR. Maybe we'll get lucky."

They found Chin in the break room still talking to the employees. Steve pulled him aside to fill him in on the information they'd garnered while Danny told their immediate suspect pool why the techs had joined them. He silently watched the five workers as the techs methodically tested for gun shot residue. The only comment came from a young woman asking if she'd have to cut her fingernails because she'd just spent $30 to have them done. When the tech gently assured her that wasn't necessary for testing, the woman in question relaxed and started flirting. From the expression on the man's face, there wouldn't be a hook up between those two.

At that moment, a portly gentleman sporting slacks and tweed jacket blew into the room. "I need to speak to the man in charge."

The demand caught everyone's attention. Steve stepped forward. "I'm Commander McGarrett, Five-0 and you are?"

"I am Ano Tagomori. I am the museum director and I demand to know what you are doing to recover my painting."

"Mr. Tagomori, be assured that we will everything we can to find your painting but we also have three murder victims," Steve explained.

"Yes, yes, I understand that but since they are dead it would make sense that you would focus on finding the rare painting of King Kamehameha IV first."

"That's not how it works, Mr. Tagomori. Murder trumps theft," Danny said.

Completely ignoring the blond detective, the director spoke to Steve again. "You don't understand, Commander. That painting is irreplaceable."

"So are the lives of the three men found in your museum," Steve growled.

"I was told they were here to steal the portrait. Common thieves. As I see it, they got what they deserved. Catching their killer won't bring them back. However, that painting is a valuable part of Hawaii's history. A history that needs to be protected and preserved."

"Mr. Tagomori, where were you yesterday and last night," Danny asked him, attempting to get the man off his tirade.

The man continued to ignore Danny while glowering at Steve. "Please answer my partner's question, Mr. Tagomori."

Directing his answer to Steve, the director haughtily informed them he'd closed the museum, went home for dinner with his wife and six children, taking a quick turn in his home gym afterwards. He ensconced himself in bed to watch the news, making it an early night because the family had plans on the North Shore for today. Which is where he was when he received word that his museum had been robbed.

"That's wonderful. I hope you don't mind if we check your alibi." Danny tried again to get the man to respond. It'd become a challenge.

The subtle threat worked. "Surely you don't think I had anything to do with this debacle."

"We haven't ruled out anything yet. I'm sure you want us to be thorough," Danny said, egging the man on.

"Of course I do," Tagomori huffed.

"Wonderful, Detective Kelly here will take your information. Now if you'll excuse us," Steve said, exiting the room to the disgruntled comments of the director.

Another forty minutes at the crime scene garnered them little new information. The team agreed to meet back at HQ. Danny and Steve would stop to grab lunch for everyone. Sliding into the car, Danny pulled out his phone to find he had two texts from Grace and one from Arianna via Grace's phone.

_Danno. we're headed 2 Arianna's now. Is it okay if we stop by her hotel real quick on the way?_

_Danny. Hope u dont mind. I left some important things in my room. I promise its our only detour._

_Danno, pick me up from Arianna's. not going back to Uncle Steve's_

Danny decided he'd better reply or the girls would think he'd dropped of the grid.

_the d tour was fine. Sorry didnt respond, mid case interview. Will let you kno when we're headed ur way._

Steve had took a moment to check his own phone. He'd only missed one text.

_Hey, oh paternal one. Left you a surprise on kitchen counter. I've kidnapped Grace to make her my personal char woman. We be a my place when u done_.

He sent a quick reply. _U could just call me Steve or dad. Other makes me sound old. We'll let u kno when we're on our way. Shouldn't b 2 l8._

Danny and Steve received the same reply. _LOL me n grace. dont u 2 chk w/ each other first b4 responding?_

"I'd say your daughter is a bad influence on my innocent child if I wasn't positive Grace was leaning over her shoulder dictating the response," Danny grumbled.

"I could say the same thing back, but I'd be a hypocrite," Steve admitted. "Let's go get food before Kono hits the point of no return."

"By all means. I never want to have to deal with a hungry Kono Kalakaua."

Back at HQ, after satisfying their hunger, the team pooled information. They had the employee lists, the alibis of the ones that found the bodies as well as those of the chief of security and the director. All the evidence had been sent to the lab, what little there had been. The security tapes had been sent as well. Since it was Sunday, the lab said it would be tomorrow before they'd be able to start on anything. They had the same statement from Max about the autopsies. Kono was still trying to reach the museum's computer guy. Reality was they had nothing.

"Kono, keep trying the computer guy. If you don't reach him by three, put out an ATL (attempt to locate). In the mean time, let's split the lists of employees. We can get and check alibis," Steve directed.

"We're not doing any visits?" Danny asked.

"Let's hold off on those unless we can't reach them by phone," Steve responded like he was trying to convince the team of something they weren't going to like.

Danny called him on it. "Okay. Hold it right there. That's your I-Have-a-Theory face. Please share with the class."

"I think the employees are going to be a dead end."

"Interesting. You have any reason beyond your gut," Danny asked.

"It was the director and what Chin said about the responses he received from the one's who found the bodies. They all seem more interested or concerned about recovering the painting than finding out who murdered the thieves. It is a gut feeling, but I can't see any of them being cold blooded killers." Steve's reasoning made sense in an odd way to the others.

"It did seem like their whole world was the museum," Chin spoke up. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't check everyone out."

"I'm not saying we won't, but I still think we'll be chasing our tails," Steve said.

"Hopefully we won't bite ourselves. Give me part of that list," Danny declared.

With the list of thirty-six employees split equally, the four team members dispersed to their own offices to start dialing. Four frustrating hours later, Steve gathered the team at the tech table. They still had no leads. All employees and alibis checked out except for the Terri the computer guy. Kono put out the ATL. Nothing from the lab or ME's office, not that they were expecting anything, but it would've been nice. Steve called it a day.

Steve let Danny drive because he wanted to call the girls. Arianna picked up on the second ring.

"Hey princess, we're on our way. Do you need us to pick up anything on the way?" Steve asked.

"Cool. We're about finished here and we're good," she replied.

"All right, see you in a few minutes."

Steve hung up after the goodbyes. Watching the passing scenery, he sighed, "It's still a bit surreal, you know."

"I'm sure it is," Danny said, knowing immediately what his partner was talking about. "In a blink of an eye you gained a child, at twenty year old child. Would throw any normal person off their game."

"Yeah. I wouldn't change it though."

"Of course not. She's your kid. A good one at that. You're going to be a great dad."

His friend's compliment went a long way to relieving his unspoken fears. Steve has a great respect for Danny as a father, so to hear him praise Steve, well that was something.

As Danny pulled into the drive at Arianna's both men noticed the rubbish pile had grown considerably since yesterday. The girls had been hard at work. The front porch had been swept and the new steps had a coat of paint on them, made more obvious by the "Wet Paint, please use backdoor. This means you, Dads" sign.

Danny recognized his daughter's handwriting. "I might need to reconsider that bad influence statement."

Steve chuckled as the men wandered to the back of the house. They found their respective daughters curled up together on a lounger on the lanai, watching a movie on a computer while sipping iced tea. Two clean glasses sat next to a pitcher on a near by table. The men settled into the deck chairs to relax and let the ladies finish their movie.

Soon, Danny was gathering up Grace and heading out. Steve turned to Arianna once the Camaro was out of the drive. "You want me to look at the car, now?"

"Not today. I'm getting by fine without it. Go home and enjoy what's left of your Sunday."

Steve couldn't figure out the tone in her voice, but he knew when he was being dismissed. Her facial expression indicated she was resigned, maybe. "You okay?"

"Fine, just tired," she responded wearily.

Ignoring the dismissal he said, "Well, come on. We can grab a quick bite to eat and then I'll drop you off at the hotel." He was starting to worry over her demeanor. He hadn't seen her like this.

"Actually, I checked out of the hotel this afternoon. Grace was a big help in getting this place spic and span so I decided to stay. Why waste the money on another night at a hotel."

"Oh. Sounds like a good decision. Do you want to still grab something to eat?" Steve couldn't shake the feeling that something was really wrong and wanted to see if he could get Arianna to talk.

"Can I take a raincheck? I'd have to take a shower and change clothes. I'm too beat to even think about it." Arianna was trying really hard not to start crying in front of Steve. The man was perceptive and she wasn't ready to give voice to what was on her mind.

"Okay, then. I'll talk to you tomorrow," Steve said disappointed. Pulling her into his arms, he gave her a brief hug which she half heartedly returned. He waited until heard the deadbolt engage before lopping off the porch for the truck. This moment reminded him of exactly how much he needed to learn about his daughter. He'd give her overnight and try again.

Steve arrived home to discover a huge plate holding two different kinds of cookies, a note folded over next to the plate and a spotless kitchen. Grabbing a glass from the cupboard, he poured a glass of milk, snagged one of each cookie and the note and made for the living room to plop down on the couch. He unfolded the note to find a sweet message in what he assumed was Arianna's handwriting as it was too neat to be Grace's. _Hope you like snickerdoodles and oatmeal raisin. I have it on Grace's authority she's seen you eat both. These are a small token of my appreciation for, well for everything. Love, A._

Steve was glad no one was around to witness the dopey grin he knew he sported. 


	11. Chapter 11

Steve stopped to pick up pastries and coffee for the team before heading in the next morning. There wasn't a point in getting in early as they'd only have to twiddle their thumbs waiting for information. Steve didn't really like twiddling his thumbs. Danny pulled in next to the truck as Steve was stepping out.

"Morning, partner," Steve shouted in greeting.

"Good morning to you. What's with the exuberant mood?" Danny asked warily.

"Nothing specific. Slept good for the first time in a while. The water was great this morning. Arianna said she loved me." Steve was like a giddy school girl, departing this information.

"Ahhh. There's the key. Daddy's little girl loves him." Danny happiness for his partner showing on his face and in his eyes.

"Yeah, she does. Come on, Danno, let's get the work day started."

While Steve set the treats on the conference table, Danny made the rounds, powering up the computers and switching on the necessary lights. Chin and Kono walked through the doors together, chatting about some family gathering they'd been at last night.

"Morning guys. Anything new yet?" Kono asked around a mouthful of danish.

"Nothing yet, but then everyone else has only been in for an hour," Danny answered.

"What time's Catherine suppose to be back?" Kono enquired.

"She should be her by ten or so depending on how long the last meeting takes," Steve answered. As he was about to continue, the video chat rang on the tech table.

Pulling up the screen, Chin was met with the ever bland face of their favorite ME. "Good Morning, Max. What's up?"

"I have the results of my autopsies for you," came the pedantic reply.

"Wow, Max! That's great. What time did you get in this morning?" Danny asked in awe.

"My spelunking commitment was cancelled at the last minute, so I came back to the lab yesterday and then arrived at six a.m. to complete my examinations."

"What you got for us?" Steve was tired of the pleasantries, eager to have something to do.

"My preliminary findings were correct. Each victim died from a single gun shot wound to the back of the head. I've pulled 9mm slugs and sent them to Mr. Fong as well as the personal effects of each victim, which includes a set of keys and two cell phones. I've run fingerprints through IAFIS. There have been no hits."

When Max finished his delivery, Chin spoke, "Thanks, Max. Anything else to add?"

"Not at this time, Detective Kelly. I will contact you again should I find anything new." With that, Max closed the call.

"So now we're waiting on the lab. Kono any word on the ATL for the computer guy?" Steve nervous energy was barely contained.

"Nothing yet. I plan on calling again. If I don't get anything I'm going to go canvas his neighborhood see if anyone knows what the guy is up to."

"Sounds good. Chin why don't you go to the lab and see if you can help with the cell phones. Maybe bring them back here, give the techs a break. Danny, you done with your lists?" At the affirmative nod, Steve continued, "Good. Let's start digging into backgrounds, starting with the curator and the chief of security. Maybe we'll get lucky and something will pop up." The team dispersed.

Kono obviously had no luck with her phone call as she was soon waving bye to Steve and Danny. Chin was gone about an hour before he returned with the cell phones. Taking over the tech table, he started to mine the cells for their information. Eventually Steve and Danny both joined him, needing a stretch and a break.

"Anything, Chin?" Steve asked hopeful.

"I've got through the first one and on the second. They're all burner phones. So far the first one has been only used to call three numbers, multiple times. No texts, no voicemails. My suspicion is that two of those numbers are going to belong to the other two cells and the third belongs to our gunman."

Catherine walked in before he could continue. "Hey guys, we got a new case?" She'd approached Steve to give him a quick hug, but he pulled back. She knew that he wasn't one for PDA's, but after being gone for four days, she thought he'd cut her a little slack. Apparently not.

The guys quickly filled her in on the details and were discussing the results coming from the second burner phone when Steve's own cell rang. "Hey, Kono. You got anything?"

"Nothing yet, but I sure could use some help. This place is one big apartment complex and according to the building manager, Terri is very popular and anyone in the place could have talked to him or seen him on Saturday as there was a huge party in the game room."

"Keep at it. I'm sending Catherine over to give you a hand."

"I'll text her the address and meet her in the lobby," Kono acknowledged.

"Well, I guess I've got my marching orders and here I was hoping for a quiet day in the office," Catherine chided.

"Haven't you learned there is now such thing as a quiet day with Five-0?" Chin asked.

"Apparently not. See you guys later." Catherine dropped her gear and strutted out.

Chin finished running the phones. His theory was correct, all three tied back to a fourth. They tried tracking the fourth but it was either turned off or had been ditched. Another dead end.

"Danny you anywhere with the curator?" Steve asked.

"Nah. The guy is your average, boring citizen. Not even so much as a parking ticket. He'd make Gabby look like a museum rebel. You get anything?"

"No. The guy had a run as a juvy with some graffiti and a couple of parking tickets, but that's it. Family's clean too."

"My guy's the same. Has an eighty year old father who still volunteers at the museum."

"There's something to be said for average America, even if it doesn't help us with our case," Chin offered. Neither of the other two had a good comeback for that.

"Chin, why don't you start looking deeper into the computer guy. His noticeable absence might be a coincidence. Danny you get the director since you bonded so well with him."

"Nice one, buddy, you could open for Nikki the Kid," Danny retorted.

Steve snorted. "I'll start with the remainder of the employees. Let me know if you guys finish and I'll share my list."

Two hours later, they were still hard at it when the office phone rang. "Hey Steve, pick up line 2. Mr. Tagomori would like to speak with you," Chin called out.

Danny, on the pretense of getting a drink, wandered over to the tech table to join Chin who'd also left his office. The two spent the next several minutes enjoy the show Steve presented while speaking with the museum director.

"Five bucks says he throws his pen down, stands up, rotates his chair and then readjusts his gun," Danny said casually.

"You're on. I'm betting after he stands up that he paces to the window, forgetting he's on the land line and almost takes the phone off the desk, then readjusts his gun," Chin replied gamely.

Ten minutes later Steve stomped out of his office to join his team only to see Danny handing Chin $5. He didn't ask. There a somethings a boss just doesn't care to know. "Mr. Tagomori would like our assurances that his museum will be able to open tomorrow without any disruption, which includes being able to view the gallery that houses our crime scene," he snarled.

"I presume you were your usual charming self and informed him that it was more likely a baby seal would survive to adulthood after it was thrown into a shark cage," Danny chided.

Steve blushed. "I might have implied something similar."

"You did! You mentioned sharks and cages. What is with you? You seem to have a fascination with shark cages."

"One time, Danny. One. Time. Are you ever going to let it go?"

Danny rubbed his hand over his jaw. "Not until you do something else that is a better story," he replied honestly.

"Fair enough," Steve acknowledged. "You any where with the director?"

"So far nothing, but I'm only on kid number two," Danny answered.

Steve looked at Chin. "I've got nothing on my guy; average grades, two jobs, still owes on his car."

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I could use a break. Let's grab some lunch. Maybe by the time we get back Kono and Cath will have something," Danny said.

Steve pulled out his phone. He'd texted Arianna to see if she wanted to grab some lunch a while ago. He hadn't gotten a response. Frowning at the stubbornly quiet item, he mutter, "Yeah. That sounds good."

"I'm in. My lunch date had to cancel," Chin replied.

"So we're your consolation prize?" Danny teased.

"If the shoe fits," Chin replied.

The trio took care of a few things before they left the office, arguing over where to go. It eventually came down to Kamekona's. Like there was any question. Chin called the women to see if they'd be able to join them. As they'd just finished up, both eagerly accepted the invite. They'd also be able to update the team on their findings.

The group quickly ordered and commandeered two picnic tables to wait for their food. Cath told them what they'd found out about Terri computer guy while they waited. "We finally found a neighbor Terri Glenn confided his days off plans to. Mr. Glenn is on the Big Island for a symposium and will be returning this evening so he will get plenty of rest before work tomorrow. I'll verify the information when we get back to the office."

"That's great news. Get a uni to sit on his place and wait for him to get home," Danny told her.

"Kono already called it in."

The woman of topic shot was studying Steve. "You expecting an important call, boss?"

"Hum, what?" Steve answered, distracted.

"That's the eighth or ninth time you've check your phone since we got here, brah. Is the president suppose to call," she teased.

Steve still wasn't fully tracking, "Um no. I, uh, sent off a message and I kinda expected a reply by now is all."

"Maybe the person got busy," Cath guessed, trying to be helpful.

"Yeah, maybe," Steve sighed.

"Well if it isn't my favorite bunch of crime fighters," Kamekona bellowed. Everyone got a good chuckle from the big man's comment. Shrimp plates were consumed and the the team found themselves back at HQ before they were ready.

Danny tugged on Steve's arm to slow the man's approach to the offices. Waiting until they were several paces behind the others, Danny asked, "You trying to get ahold of Arianna?"

"Yeah. I sent her a text about 9:30 and she still hasn't answered. She's always pretty quick to return the message even when I've woken her up from a dead sleep."

"Have you tried calling? Maybe text services are delayed."

"Yeah, I called before we left and left a voicemail."

"Well, maybe she's out of cell range. Didn't she say her friend lives in Waimanolo? Service out there is sketchy at best," Danny recalled, trying to ease the tension in his friend.

"Yeah, she does. Maybe your right," Steve pouted.

"And now the lesson on letting the children grow up. You, buddy, have it rough. You've got to go through all of this in a very short amount of time whereas the rest of us poor schmucks have ten or so years."

"Danny, if you're trying to be supportive, you're sucking at it," Steve retorted. "It's not like you are letting Grace go any time soon."

"Would never deny it, but I've at least had eleven years to accept that the possibility of Grace becoming independent even exists. You've have a week. Maybe should look at her like she's Mary."

"What the hell! Mary?! Are you saying you see Arianna jumping from job to job and impulsively adopting a child?" Steve squeaked.

"No, no. You misunderstand me. I mean that you've accepted Mary is going to be independent, maybe you should view Arianna more like a grown up sister. Someone you don't need to worry so much about," Danny countered, trying to diffuse the SEAL.

"Not going to happen," Steve stated.

"Thought I'd give it a shot," Danny replied.

"Hey, you guys gonna stand out there all day?" Catherine called from the front door.

"We're coming," they yelled back simultaneously.

Back at their desks, the members of Five-0 went back to their phone calls and background checks. By mid-afternoon all five of them were going stir crazy, having gotten nowhere. It was a relief when Chin called them to the war room because Charlie Fong had CSU's findings ready for them.

"Hey Charlie. What you got for us?" Chin enthusiastically asked.

"Not much. The fingerprints and foreign collect at the scene belong to over a hundred people. The few that turned up through IAFIS belong to mainlanders, probably tourists, but I'll send you the list. Ballistics came back on the weapon, 9mm hand gun registered to a Kim Dae Yung, deceased. No known living family. The video analysis tells us that the shooter was more than likely female or a petite male with, for lack of better description, very delicate mannerisms."

"What exactly does that mean?" Danny asked.

Charlie looked uncomfortable. "All of the shooters movements were graceful and fluid. If I had to make a guess, I would say the person was a dancer, ballet or ballroom."

The Five-0 members shared confused expressions. Steve was the first to recover, "Right, so anything else, Charlie."

"That's all the evidence we have," Charlie said. Apologies and thanks were passed around before the call ended.

"So, what do we do now, start looking at all the dance studios on the island?" Danny joked. The others groaned.

The remainder of the day was spent doing background checks. At one point Steve let Danny call the museum director with the good news that the gallery was cleared to open on Tuesday. Danny laughed himself out of his chair when Steve got a call from Mr. Tagomori within seconds of Danny ending his call with the man. He wanted to check the veracity of his previous call.

Steve was ready to call it a day when a call came in from HPD saying they'd found the painting. Found wasn't the correct word, more like received. A cabbie found the canister in his backseat between fares. Curious, she'd opened it up to discover the stolen painting that had been on the news. She'd immediately driven it to the closest police station. She'd had a lot of fares downtown that day and hadn't paid any attention to the items they were carrying so she was of no help in identifying the person who left the canister. With no new information, the team went their respective homes.

Catherine pulled up along side the pick-up to find the owner still sitting in the driver's seat. Getting out of her own car, she crossed around the back of the truck to knock on the driver's window. Steve scowled a little at the interruption. "Hey, wanna give me a hand with my gear?" she asked when he opened the door.

"Yeah, give me a sec. I'll be right there."

When it was obvious he wasn't going to complete what she assumed was his text while she was standing there, Catherine returned to her own car. She was surprised when Steve shut the truck door without getting out. She had all her gear in hand and the trunk shut before he joined her.

"Here, let me take that," Steve said, grabbing her duffle as he kept walking to the front door.

"Upstairs or laundry?" he asked, gesturing to the bag.

"Laundry. I don't think anything in there is clean. How bout I get some dinner started?"

"That'd be great," he shouted over his shoulder from the laundry room. Ingrained habits took over and he rapidly sorted the dirty clothing into their proper laundry bin and stashed Catherine's duffel in its spot. He sauntered into the kitchen to find his girlfriend digging through the fridge. "There should be some chicken breasts ready to go in there."

"Found them," she said popping up with said meat in one hand and a half eaten cookie in the other. "These are really good," she continued, waving the cookie around. "Mrs. Carter take pity on you while I was gone?"

"Um, no. They're from Grace."

"Wow. She's getting to be a really good little baker. Why don't you go fire up the grill and I'll throw together a salad?"

Steve left to do her bidding, leaving Catherine to wonder about the expression that crossed his face when he'd said the cookies were Grace's. Dinner conversation consisted of a rehashing of some of the reserve training and carefully redacted stories of the day at the zoo. Steve still seemed guarded but Catherine wasn't up to calling him on it tonight. Tomorrow would be soon enough.


	12. Chapter 12

Tuesday morning started out like Monday morning, endless phone calls for everyone. Duke sent the painting and canister to the lab to see if they could pull prints but so far they had nothing new.

After watching their fearless leader grow continually more restless, Danny decided he'd throw himself on the grenade. Walking into Steve's office without knocking, he flopped down in an arm chair. "Okay, what gives?" he asked without preamble.

Steve might have been grateful for the distraction. "Not sure what you mean, partner."

"Don't give me that. You've been sporting _Aneurysm Face,_ all morning. What's got your cargos in a twist?"

Steve was about to reply, "Nothing," but thought better of it when he noticed the determined set of Danny's shoulders. "Arianna called last night as I was getting home."

"That's good, isn't it. You'd been waiting all day for her to call," Danny pointed out.

"Yeah, it's good she called, it's that the call was weird," Steve told him.

"Weird? Weird how?"

"I got the impression she's upset with me about something," Steve moaned.

"Did she say anything specifically that would give you this impression?"

"Not anything particular. It was more of the overall conversation There was none of the easy banter or her snark."

"Maybe she was tired," Danny suggested.

"That's what she said but she's used that excuse several times and it gets less believable each time."

"Sounds like you need to talk to her face to face, buddy. Why don't you surprise her with lunch today? See if you can't work it out."

"That's a great idea. I'll grab something and call her on the way. It'll give her less time to think of an excuse not to see me," Steve said with renewed confidence.

Before they could continue their conversation, Catherine knocked gently on the door and stuck her head in. "You guys need to come see this. We've got a hit on our John Doe burglars."

The partners joined the others at the tech table. "We get a hit from one of the data bases?" Danny asked.

"Not exactly," Catherine answered. "We've got three missing persons reports matching our victims slash thieves descriptions."

Chin had pulled the reports up on the screens along side the crime scene photos of their vics. "I'd say that's our guys."

"Where are they from?" Steve asked.

"The reports are from Hilo. It seems the three were suppose to be at a dinner of one of their parents. When they didn't show and were still unreachable this morning, the father reported them missing," Catherine answered.

"Chin, pull up everything you can on these guys," Steve instructed.

Chin's wizardry soon had the information pulled up on the adjacent screen. "All three are locals of the island and attend Hawaii Community College in Hilo, majoring in Administration of Justice. One lives with his parents the other two in off campus housing."

"Cath, contact the Hawai'i Police Department. I don't want anyone talking to parents, roommate, friends until we get there. Looks like we're going to Hilo," Steve said.

"Who's the _we_ in that statement?" Danny questioned, using air quotes.

"Me and ..." Steve trailed off as he watched Chin, Danny and Catherine take steps back away from the table. "It looks like you and me, Kono. I'll book a flight." Peering at his watch, he added, "Better pack for overnight, in the off chance we get stuck."

His phone rang as he was about to dial. No one bothered to cover their eavesdropping when they heard him say, "Good Morning, Mr. Tagomori." Steve's side of the conversation was peppered with "uh huh's, yeses and no's" until he hung up. "It seems our missing computer tech has finally shown up."

"I wonder why we didn't we get a call from HPD when he got home last night." Kono appeared ready to rip someone a new one but Steve derailed her.

"It seems, Mr. Glenn has a lady friend with whom he spent the evening and night. The first he heard about the theft was when he arrived at work."

"How convenient," Chin noted.

"I was thinking that myself. Why don't you and Danny head over to the museum to see the man and for god's sake don't mention that the painting has been returned. I don't want to field phone calls about it's return until I can give the guy a timeframe. Cath, see what more you can dig up on our victims. Everyone check in regularly. I'm gonna get tickets and head home to pack. Kono, I'll text you the info."

Steve tried to make it to his office but Catherine approached him before he got the door open. "Steve, can we talk a sec?"

"Now's not a good time, Cath. Can it wait till later?"

"Yeah, I guess it can. Have a safe trip." She barely caught his muttered, "Thanks," as the door closed.

Because he didn't want any interruptions or listeners, Steve waited until he was in the truck before calling Arianna.

"Hey, Steve. What's up?"

"I wanted to let you know that I'm headed over to Hilo for the day and possibly might have to spend the night."

"Okay. I'm glad you let me know."

"Well if you need anything, Danny is around."

"That's good to know. You're not taking your partner with you?"

"No, Kono's going. Danny has Grace."

"Grace. Of course. Well, be careful."

"I will. I'll call you when I get back on the island."

"Okay. I've got to go, I've got workmen here. I'll talk with you later." With that, she hung up.

Steve slammed his hand on the steering wheel. Something was definitely wrong but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what. Damn this case. Whatever it was, it'd have to wait until they caught the guy. He started the truck and peeled out of the parking lot. He needed to hurry in order to catch the flight.

Danny and Chin entered the museum to find the place virtually empty. The greeter was flirting with the woman behind the customer service desk. The two men walked up and waited to be noticed. When the employees continued to ignore their presence, Chin cleared his throat. "Excuse us. We're here to see Terri Glenn."

Annoyed at the interruption, the woman rolled her eyes as she picked up the phone, hitting a side button. "Terri, there's two cops here to see you." She dropped the handle into the receiver then add, "He'll be right out," without making eye contact with either detective. The two moved away from the desk to wait.

A tall young man eventually lopped around the corner. He reminded Danny of Toast, slightly less _baked_. "Mr. Glenn, I'm Detective Williams and this is Lieutenant Kelly. We're here..."

"I know why you're here. Come on back. It'll take a nano to pull the information you need." The young man not only cut Danny off, but he completed his statement while walking away from the officers.

Glenn lead them to an office on the second floor of the museum. It was incredibly tidy and incredibly tiny. Danny shot Chin a look, then backed off to let the older man into the office. Danny chose to stand in the doorway. Glenn planked himself into the desk chair and began tapping away at the computer keys. They had their answer. "It's his day off," Glenn intoned.

"Of course it is," Danny muttered.

"Time to go see Mr. Kalani, our head of security?" Chin asked.

"Time to go see Mr. Kalani," Danny confirmed.

Chin called in their update while Danny drove them to Lanikai. "How does a security guard afford a house in Lanikai?" Danny pondered out loud.

"By stealing and selling priceless paintings." Chin answered.

"You don't make a ton of dough if you forget the painting in the backseat of a taxi," Danny pointed out.

"Maybe he was in a hurry. Did his alibi check out?"

"Steve vetted him. Squeaky clean like all the rest of the employees," Danny answered.

"Let's see if we can get him to talk."

They pulled up to a well kept one story home with an impressive front garden. They'd barely passed through the gate when a woman's voice called out, "Can I help you gentlemen?"

Turning towards the direction of the voice they were greeted by a middle aged woman dressed in the most eye blinding muumuu either of them had ever seen. She'd accessorized with an enormous brimmed straw hat and flowered gloves.

"I'm Lieutenant Kelly and this is Detective Williams. Is Mr. Kalani home?"

"That bum? Yeah, he's inside probably taking a nap. Please feel free to walk in and scare the daylights out of him."

"Thank you. We'll, uh, be sure to to do that," Danny stammered.

Their suspect was indeed sleeping. "Mr. Kalani," Chin said at a moderate level. When that didn't work, he repeated himself a little bit louder. That worked. The man flew from his chair like he'd been shot out of a cannon.

Much exaggerated gyrations and swear words later the man collected himself. "Who let you in here?" he bellowed.

"Mr. Kalani, your wife let us in. We'd need to ask you a few questions," Danny explained, trying to placate the man.

"I answered all your questions at the museum," he rebutted.

"We have some new information we'd like to verify," Chin told him.

Sitting back down, the guard waved the two officers to the coach. "Go ahead. I've got nothing to hide."

"Mr. Kalani, have you given your key code out to anyone?" Danny asked, going for the indirect approach.

"No. Those codes are specific to a person. You don't give them out. Course that doesn't stop someone from seeing you key it in," the man answered honestly.

"What do you mean?" Danny followed up.

"The pad isn't covered and if you have your hands full, you've got no way of shielding it. Anyone standing to either side of you could see what you key in if they were paying a whit of attention. Don't know why anyone would want to anyway. There's only five people allowed to enter through that door and they all have codes of their own. Why you so curious about my code?"

Chin made sure he had eye contact with the man before he answered, "Your code was used the night of the murders."

The security guard was visibly shaken. "Well, you don't say."

"Mr. Kalani, do you know of anyone that would want to frame you for theft and murder?" Danny questioned.

"God, no. My life is dull as a sack of rocks. Ask my wife."

"Has anyone been with you lately when you've entered the building?" Danny continued.

"Not that I recall," he replied after some consideration.

"Please keep thinking about it. Here's my card. If anything jars a memory, please call me immediately," Chin said, standing up. "Thank you for your time."

"Yes, thank you," Danny repeated.

The two detectives exited the house to find Mrs. Kalani standing in the same spot laughing. "That'll teach him to sleep in the middle of the day."

Danny had felt his phone vibrate while they were speaking with their psuedo suspect. He pulled it out, leaning over the roof of the Camaro to read the text.

_Danny, do me a solid. Swing by Arianna's and check on her. Please. She said she had workmen there and well, she's not really talking to me. Please, I'll owe you one._

Danny didn't have a reply ready. He was torn, not really wanting to get in between the two. Steve was his best friend and boss and he really liked Arianna. She was a female Steve without the crazy and a ton more snark. Putting himself in the middle had huge potential to blow up in his face, resulting in mental and physical harm. There was also the glaring fact that he had no clue what the in the hell was wrong. Then he thought about what Steve would do for him if they were talking about Grace. "Hey, Chin, do you mind if we make a stop before we head back to HQ?"

The two men pulled up across the street due to two maintenance trucks parked in front of the house, Dobson's Monitoring and Security and Aaron's Plumbing. "I need to check with my friend on something. I won't be long," Danny informed Chin as got out of the car. Chin nodded, pulling out his phone to check email.

Danny was greeted at the front door by a burly man wearing a mechanic type jumpsuit with a name tag declaring him to be Dobb Jr. "Is the lady of the house around?"

The man gave Danny the once over, eyes stopping at the badge and gun hooked to his belt. Registering him as no threat, the man motioned to the interior. "I think she's in the kitchen."

Danny stepped around the man and the electronic equipment scattered about to follow the man's pointing finger. He found Arianna sitting on a chair next to another woman in the kitchen. They both looked up when he entered. "Danny, what do I owe the pleasure. Never mind, don't answer. He asked you to come check on me didn't he?"

Arianna's frosty manner set off both lightbulbs and alarms. Making a now educated guess as to their problem, Danny concluded Steve had crossed over, scratch that, bulldozed over the boundary line of the girl's comfort zone and she was trying to communicate that by passive aggressive means. Knowing he needed to tread lightly, he thought briefly about lying, decided against it and admitted the truth. "Yes."

"You can tell him I'm fine."

"I can see that. What's with the.." Crap, he'd forgot to sign. He ended up waving to encompass the legs sticking out from under the sink.

"The plumbing? The pipe broke off under the sink. I had water everywhere," Arianna informed him.

The woman next to her spoke up and signed, "Arianna, who's your friend?" Signing only she continued, "He's hot. Is he single?"

Danny could feel the blush move up his face. "Sharon, he can sign," Arianna said. "This is Detective Danny Williams. Danny, this is Sharon, temporary interpreter, good friend and incorrigible flirt. Just ignore her."

"Nice to meet you Sharon," Danny said, proving Arianna's statement that he could sign. "Arianna can I speak to you alone for a moment." When she didn't answer, except for rolling her eyes, he followed her out the lanai doors and huffed, "I'll take that as a yes."

Unlike her father, she was really good at waiting people out. She glowered at Danny until he put together the words he wanted. "He's new to this whole dad thing. Do you think you could give him a break?"

Even though that didn't come out as eloquently as he would've liked, it worked. Arianna's glower turned to a resigned frown. "I'll call him tonight."

He expected her to continue but the silence between them became oppressive to the point he finally stammered, "Thanks. Look, I gotta go. We're still in the middle of a case, but if you need anything."

"I know," she said cutting him off. "Steve already told me you'd be around."

"Oh, he did, did he? Well, it's nice to know he feels comfortable enough to offer my services without asking me. Not that I'd have said no if he'd asked, mind you. I do kinda like you but it would've been nice to have been asked."

Laying her had on his arm, Arianna stopped his rant with, "Thanks, Danny."

"Way to deflate a perfectly good head of steam, young lady. Seriously though, call me if you need to."

"I will."

"Call him."

"I will, promise."

Danny returned to his waiting teammate thinking he'd just had the strangest conversation of his entire life.

"Everything squared away?" Chin asked as Danny settled into the driver's seat.

"Yeah. It's all good. I think." Chin, wise man that he is, didn't press the issue.

Danny waited until he was behind the closed door of his office before calling his partner. He ended up with Steve's voicemail. "Hey, buddy. Hope you're having fun. I did as you asked. Expect a phone call tonight and Steve, cut her some slack. She's new to the whole having a Navy SEAL with a laser like focus for a father, thing." Okay his work as mediator is done.

Even though Steve had got them on a fairly early flight, due to mechanical issues, they were boarding when Danny called so he let it go to voicemail. Because the flight was short, it was rare the airline let passengers use their phones on the plane so he'd have to wait until they landed on Hilo before checking it. He really didn't want to answer it under Kono's scrutiny anyway.

Kono covertly watched her boss as they waited and as they boarded. He'd been nervous and moody during the wait and then he looked like he was going to strangle someone when his phone rang and he was unable to answer it. When Catherine'd asked her yesterday if she'd noticed Steve being a little off, she answered in the negative. After this morning, she would have to change her answer. She waited until they were buckled in and Steve had no avenue of escape, then she pounced. "Couldn't help but notice you're a little on edge, boss. Anything I should worry about?"

Steve felt like cornered prey. Kono was not only a good detective, she was wily. While Danny badgered, Kono finessed. "Not a thing," he cautiously answered.

"Is it something with the case," she persisted.

"Nope, nothing with the case." Please, if there's a god in heaven, let her drop it. His plea seemed to work, at least until after take-off.

"Dynamics are a bit different at work, what with Catherine on the team."

He managed a choked grunt,

"Huge adjustment for you. I know I'd have a hard time if I had to spend all day at work with Adam and then turn around and go home with him."

All he could think was please let this seat swallow me up. "It's different, but we're good."

Kono smiled. "That's nice to hear. Remember, boss, we're ohana."

"Uh, thanks." Steve knew they'd be revisiting this conversation.

Smiling guilefully, she changed the topic. "Weather forecast says there's a storm coming in that's suppose to last all night. Should I book us rooms on the off chance we're stuck here?"

"Yeah, you probably should. Hawai'i PD is suppose to meet us at the gate. I'll have them send uniforms out to pick up all three families. Makes it easy the vics are locals, we can give death notifications and do interviews at the local station."

"How bout I call that in and get the hotel while you fill in the locals about the case? I'll also arrange for a rental car to be dropped off at the station," Kono offered.

"Sounds good."

Two detectives waited at the gate for the members of Five-0 to disembark. Their badges and guns made them easy to spot. Steve brought them quickly up to date while Kono did her thing. In no time they were on their way to the station. They'd have to wait for the families to get there, but it gave them time to check in with the rest of the team.

Steve used the extra time to check his personal voicemail. He listened to Danny's cryptic message twice before the "clue bus" hit him in the chest. He quickly reviewed all of their interactions from the time they'd met. He concluded he'd been a bit of an ass. He knew he had a lot of groveling to do. Hopefully Arianna will be willing to listen tonight. Armed with information and a plan, he can finally give his full attention to the case.

Getting with Kono and the detectives they came up with a plan of attack. They'd inform the families of the unfortunate deaths of their children as a group and then split them up. One group each to Steve, Kono and the partners. Death notices always cut to the bone for Steve. He popped a couple of aspirin as a precautionary measure and tried to stay out of the way of the precinct officers during their wait.

The notices went better than expected. Steve guessed the families already suspected something. It was still almost two hours later before they were able to pool information. They commandeered an empty interrogation room to lay everything out.

"Okay, Kono, shoot," Steve requested.

"My guy was in the middle of his second year. He was an administration of justice major. Neither he nor his family knew the others until the kids started school at Hawaii Community College. Oh, and he lives at home."

Steve looked to the local detectives. "What'd you guys get?

The older of the pair cleared his throat. "Same here. Second year, didn't know the others until he came to school, only really started hanging out with the other two this year when he changed his major to admin of justice. He lives off campus with a roommate, no significant other that the family knows about."

"Wow, these guys could almost be clones. My guy changed his major this year as well. Kono did yours?" At her affirmative, Steve continued, "This guy lives off campus as well with two roommates, has an on-again-off-again relationship with a girl he met in high school. The only friends he talked about were the other two and only after the start of this year."

Standing up to her full height and stretching out kinked muscles, Kono declared, "Guess it's time to go interview roommates. I'll go check on the rental and meet you outside."

Steve couldn't help but catch the way the other two men appreciatively followed her movements. The younger one turned to Steve. "Is she single?"

"Sorry, brah, she's taken," Steve commiserated.

"Maybe I could get her to change her mind," the man persisted.

"She's dating Adam Noshimuri. I don't think so." Steve tried hard to hide his grin at the other man's dejected look.

"Better luck next time. Thanks for all your help," Steve consoled making for the door.

Kono waited by the car, talking on the phone to Adam. She cut the call when Steve approached. "Okay, the one guy lives here in Hilo, but the other lives in Honomu. Which one do you want to take first?"

Steve assessed the sky and the impending storm. "Let's start in Honomu and come back. That way we'll be closer to the hotel when the storm hits."

"All right, let's roll." Kono threw their bags into the back and jumped into the passenger seat of the Ford Focus. Steve didn't miss her silent enjoyment at watching him fold himself into the compact car.

"Why in the hell do they even make cars this small," he grumbled, trying to find a comfortable place to put his knee without banging it on the steering column.

"Danny would tell you it's nothing less than you deserve, being so freakishly tall."

"Well, Danny isn't here, is he?"

"Nope, that's why I said it. Can't have you missing your partner."

"No chance in that," Steve retorted. "All right, where am I going?"

Kono pulled up her phone and guided them out of the city limits and up the coast to Honomu. Their destination was a quadraplex of apartments that had past their prime sometime in the seventies. "We're looking for 2A, a Tim Sommers."

"Jeez, I didn't think there was a place worse than Danny's original rat hole. I was wrong," Steve said as the pair reached the door to 2A. Knocking, he announced, "Mr. Sommers, it's Commander McGarrett and Officer Kalakaua of Five-0. May we speak with you?"

Several muffled yelps and cuss words later, the door opened to reveal a scantily clad girl with huge mascara blackened eyes. "Tim's not here," she slurred.

"Would you happen to know where we can find him?" Kono asked gently.

"He's at work."

"And where might that me?" Kono prodded.

"World Botanical Garden. But you're not suppose to bug him at work. It could get him fired," the more awake girl stated.

"Well make sure he keeps his job," Steve said, trying to sound reassuring.

"You'd better. We need the money." The girl slammed the door in their faces. They could hear the same litany as she made her way back to what they presumed was a bed.

"Well, there's an upside. I've always wanted to go to the World Botanical Garden. Want me to drive?"

Steve wondered at Kono's enthusiasm. "Not a chance. I just got that stupid seat adjusted."

After many directs and misdirects, they found Tim Sommers spreading fertilizer in a flower bed in the back corner of the property. "Mr. Sommers, Five-0. May we have a word with you?" Steve announced when they were close enough.

The young man studied them with a weary expression. "This is about Junior, isn't it."

"I'm afraid so," Kono confirmed. "I'm sorry to inform you. Your roommate was shot and killed early Sunday morning."

"Shit. I told that idiot those guys were bad news, but he didn't listen. Now he's dead. Where am I gonna find someone to help with the rent?"

"What guys are you referring to, Mr. Sommers?" Kono questioned.

"Those guys he's been hanging out with this school year. He met them at some off campus meeting the end of September, I think. They just didn't seem on the up and up, if you know what I mean."

Pulling up some pictures on his phone, Steve handed it to the young man. "Are these the guys you're talking about?"

"Yeah, that's them. They dead too?"

"Yes they are," Steve affirmed.

"You told his folks yet. His mom is gonna freak."

"They've been told. Can you tell us anymore about the other men?" Steve asked, trying to get the kid back on topic.

"Not really. As I said, I didn't like them so I stayed away. I did see a girl with them once or twice though. Our age, brown hair. Don't know any more."

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Sommers. We'll let you get back to work," Kono stated so they could make their escape.

Kono waited until they were back in the car to say what she'd been ruminating on. "You think the girl he mentioned is our shooter?"

"I think it's a good bet. Might me a girlfriend, but I doubt it," Steve answered.

"Hopefully the other guy's roommates have more information," Kono sighed.

"Yeah." Steve scanned the sky as he pulled the car onto the main road. "It looks like the storm is right on time. If the reports are correct, the airports will be shut down before it's over."

"Let's get this next one over with and get to the hotel. I really don't feel like getting drenched today," Kono instructed.

"Yes, ma'am," Steve barked, pressing the pedal a little closer to the floor.

Their next stop was easy to find, a block or so off campus. It didn't look in any better shape than their previous stop, maybe a little cleaner.

Kono knocked this time, tapping her foot while they waited for an answer. The young man who answered was the antithesis of the young woman from earlier. She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"You're here about Ronnie. We've already heard."

"I'm Officer Kalakaua and this is Commander McGarrett. We have some questions we'd like to ask. Do you mind if we come in?"

"Sure, why not. Chris, Pats the cops are here about Ronnie," the kid shouted pulling the door open wider to let the officers in.

The trio entered the living room to be greeted by a couple wrapped around each other on the couch. "What can we do for you, officers?" the boy asked, trying to dislodge the girl without taking both of them to the floor.

"We have some questions about your roommate, Ronnie."

"Yeah, we heard. Ronnie's mom called us. Ask away."

"What can you tell us about the guys he hung out with?" Steve asked.

"Not much. Met them at some meeting at the beginning of the year. They always seemed a little cagey," couch boy offered.

"Anything else?" Kono prompted.

"Well, the last couple of months, they've be tighter than before and a girl started hanging out with them too."

"Do you know the girl's name."

"Nah." Twisting to look at his couch companion he asked, "She give you a name when she asked you to build that magnet, Pats?"

Steve leaned forward. "What magnet?"

The girl shrugged. "It wasn't a magnet. She wanted something small that could fool a laser beam into thinking it was still in contact with it's original object. Not a big deal."

"Did you make this item for her?" Steve asked, aggravated they were having to pull information out of these kids.

"Yeah. Took me an afternoon. Series of mirrors in a casing is all. Oh, she never did give her name."

"Did she tell you what she was going to do with the device?" Kono asked.

"Nope. Didn't ask either. She paid me $500 for something that cost me $20 bucks."

Steve barely contained a snarl. "If you sat down with a sketch artist, do you think you'd be able to describe the girl?"

All three kids shrugged. "Sure,why not."

"Kono, call it in and set it up." Just then a crack of thunder rattled the windows causing everyone in the room to jump.

"You'd better make it tomorrow. I'm not going out in that," the girl stated with finality.

Steve kept up the mantra, "you can't strangle them, they're kids and they're helping the case."

Kono rescued him from creating and bodily harm. "We've got a sketch artist at the local police station set for 9:00 a.m."

"Whoa, can't do that. I've got classes," door boy said.

Kono gave he a what-the-hell look. "Seriously, dude. You're going to take classes over helping find your friend's killer?"

He had the good sense to look abashed. "No, I guess not."

"Okay, we'll meet you at the station a 08:50 sharp," Steve ordered.

"Yes, Sir," the three chimed in unison.

The storm had hit full force while they were speaking with the kids. The pair were drenched by the time they reached the car. "Why don't we go to the hotel, get some dry clothes, update the team, grab some food and hit the sack?" Steve suggested, trying to ignore how uncomfortable wet clothes are.

"Sounds like a plan," Kono agreed.

The wipers did a poor job of keeping the screen clear. Steve drove so slowly that what should have been a ten minute drive became thirty. He pulled under the over hang, grateful to hand the keys over to the valet, who at least had an umbrella.

After checking in, the pair squelched their way up to their rooms. "Take a hot shower. Get changed, I'll call the update in. Meet you in the lobby in thirty," Steve told her. His hands were shaking as much as Kono's but he was the team leader.

Chin answered the phone when he called. "Hey, brah, how's the big island?"

"Not bad, storming like a son of bitch though." Steve's teeth were chattering so had Chin could barely understand him. "Look, I'm gonna make this short." He quickly brought the older man up to date. "I've gotta get out of these wet clothes. We'll send over the sketch asap and we'll see you in the morning."

"Go warm up, brah. See you tomorrow." Chin ended the call.

Steve relished his Hollywood shower, standing under the spray until the vent fan couldn't keep up with the steam. Realizing he was pushing his self-imposed time frame, he rushed through dressing forsaking his boots for the slippers he'd brought with him. He opened the door to find Kono closing her own. "Sorry, boss. The shower felt too good."

"I agree. I have to be honest. My teeth were chattering when I called Chin."

"Nice to know your human, brah."

"Yeah, just don't tell Danny."

Her laugh carried them down to the restaurant. It was off hours, so there was no wait. Soon they were enjoying beers and decent food. Steve should have known he peace wouldn't last.

"So, how's Mary doing with Joan?" Kono asked.

"Good. Good. She's a better mom than I was ready to give her credit for," Steve admitted.

"So, if it's not Catherine and it's not Mary and Joan, then what's got you so wound up this last week?" Kono wasn't normally this nosey with the teams' personal lives, but she was really concerned about Steve.

"I'm not wound up," Steve protested.

"Of course not and Danny eats pineapple of pizza. I'm worried is all," she said, genuine concern lacing her tone.

Steve knew when to give up. "I'm helping a friend through some stuff and it's not easy. New territory for him."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Thanks, but it's too soon to involve new people."

"Okay. Just remember we're all here to help," Kono said patting him on the shoulder.

"I know. Thanks." Not bothering to stifle his yawn, Steve signaled for the check. "Don't know about you but I'm ready to turn in. Say 07:00 for breakfast?"

"I'm ready to hit the hay. Let's go."

The pair parted ways at their doors, wishing each other a good night. Steve changed into his sleep pants, crawled in bed among the copious amount of pillows and clicked the T.V. on. He figured if he dozed off before Arianna called, he might as well be comfortable.

It wasn't late by normal standards, but Steve had been dozing for an hour when his cell rang. It was Catherine. Not feeling up to dealing with more drama, he hit ignore. A few minutes later it rang again, Arianna.

"Hey," was all he could get out.

"Hey," she responded in kind.

"Look, Arianna. I'm sorry. My only excuse is that for the first time in my life I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm worried."

"I know. I'm sorry too. It's new for me too. I had Mom, but she was more like a sister or a doting aunt. I've never really had a true parental figure."

"I pushed too hard. You said you weren't ready to meet anyone and I had you babysitting Grace. I'm surprised you didn't smack me upside the head."

Arianna laughed. "Give me more credit than that. I'm pretty sure you could have me pinned to the ground before I could blink."

"I could, but I wouldn't. I deserve the hit."

"Nah. Everyone makes mistakes. I should have said something and not gotten into a snit."

"How about is we start over and we agree to talk." Steve felt so much better.

"I like the sounds of that," Arianna whispered.

"So how's your week been?" Steve asked to get them off the heavy topic.

They swapped stories of their week. Steve express regret again when she mentioned the broken pipe as he knew a guy who would've given her a discount. Arianna blamed him for her stubbornness, cause she sure didn't get it from Jenny. She told him how excited she was because the teacher she's replacing finally set her exit date. Arianna would shadow the teacher on Thursday and Friday and then be on her own starting Monday. It didn't surprise him they talked for almost two hours. It was his and her matching yawns that ended their call. Steve promised to call her tomorrow when he got a break.

His phone had buzzed twice while he was talking with Arianna, both times it was Catherine. He sent off a quick email, apologizing for missing the calls, telling her he'd been asleep and he'd call her in the morning, only feeling a little guilty.

He felt so much better about where he stood with his daughter. She'd asked for his help Wednesday night to pick up her stuff from the loading docks. She'd arranged for friends to help, but the muscle and his truck instead of a trailer for the furniture would be appreciated. He promised he'd be there unless the case got in the way. He wonder if Danny felt the say way when he had to put conditions on his promises to Grace. Steve fell asleep with a contented smile on his face.


	13. Chapter 13

After a quiet breakfast, Steve and Kono made their way to the station. They were equally surprised the young college students were on time. The sketch artist was top notch, but it still took over two hours to complete the rendering.

Kono immediately faxed a copy and sent an email to the team box. Calling the office, she got Catherine. "Hey, sister. Check the email. I just sent the sketch of our suspect."

Doing as requested, Cath replied, "Got it. I'll run facial rec. with the DMV and see if we get a match. How's the weather?"

"Cleared up. Steve and I are headed to the airport. We're flying stand-by unless Steve gets too antsy and charters an island hopper. One of us will let you know when leave."

"Sounds good. We'll start working on this from here."

"Let us know if you get a hit and we need to stay here because she's from here."

"Will do," Catherine confirmed. "Have a safe flight."

"Hey, wait," Kono exclaimed as she caught Steve's hand waving, "bossman wants to speak with you." Kono handed her phone over as Steve came closer.

"Hey, Cath, sorry about last night."

"It's okay. Are you ready to admit you're getting older?" she teased.

"Why would I do that?" Steve rumbled.

"Well it seems you need to take a nap before going to bed."

"I'm admitting nothing. Hopefully we'll see you in a couple of hours." Catherine laughed at him.

They made it to the airport to find themselves still on stand-by. They made themselves as comfortable as possible for their wait.

Catherine called her two male teammates to the tech table when the computer binged results of her search.

"What you got," Chin asked, taking in the pictures on the screen.

"We have a hit on the sketch. Came back as Donna Tagomori," she informed them.

"It seems daddy's little girl isn't as perfect as he led us to believe," Danny stated. "All right, get an APB out on her, contact her family, see if they know where she is. Dig deeper in to her background. See if she's got any connection to our dead gun owner. Chin and I will go to her place and visit the Bob Kalani, see if we can rattle his cage."

Catherine started digging. This was the part of police work she found herself liking the most, the gathering of information, the sifting for hidden clues. It reminder her of time with Naval intelligence. Once she got an in, the facts flowed.

Danny and Chin arrived at the museum to find the director had went home to comfort his wife. Mr. Kalani was still on site. The receptionist from their first visit didn't even bother to look up this time, waving them through to the security office.

"Mr. Kalani, it's Detectives Kelly and Williams. We have some more questions to ask you." At the man's grunt, Chin pulled out the picture of Donna Tagomori. "Do you know this woman?"

The guard took the photo from Chin, his eyes going wide with recognition. "Yeah, that's Donna. She's in and out of here all the time. Acts like she owns the place, parading her friends through. She even thinks it's acceptable to come through the employee entrance rather than the front door. But, she's the boss's daughter so what you gonna do? Make her go around? I don't think so."

"Did you ever let her in, Mr. Kalani," Danny questioned gently.

"A couple of times, maybe." Then it dawned on the man. "Is Donna the one who killed those guys?"

"She is a person of interest," Chin confirmed. "Thank you for your time."

The officers left the security guard muttering under his breath about how miserable it was going to be at work when the boss found out that it was his kid who'd stole the painting.

The search warrant for Donna Tagomori's place came through while they were at the museum. The two cops decided to head over immediately. Their suspect lived in a secure apartment building on the outskirts of Honolulu. They didn't know what she did for a living, but she obviously had money. The doorman claimed to have not seen Donna in a week. She'd bragged about going on a weekend adventure to him.

Knocking on the front door, the men announced themselves. They weren't surprised when there wasn't an answer. The superintendent opened the door for them, after close scrutiny of the warrant.

"Wow, all her money must go to paying her rent," Danny exclaimed as he inspected the almost barren unoccupied apartment.

"Danny, come see this," Chin called out from the kitchen. When Danny joined him, he continued, pointing to various items on the table, "We got a list of the items in the museum and their worth and a whole bunch of books on "perfect" crimes."

"Well, seems like we have the right place. I'm gonna take a closer look at the bedroom. Let's get a uni to sit on this place. She if she comes home," Danny said.

Chin was already dialing. Danny carefully picked his way down the hall to the bedroom. The main part resulted in nothing of interest, but the closet...jackpot!

Chin coughed as he approached the room to alert Danny of his presences. Danny pulled himself from the closet, holding a 9mm Smith & Wesson. "Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have the proverbial smoking gun."

Chin shook his head sadly. "I'll call CSU."

By four o'clock, the entire team was gathered again at the tech table in the main room. The odds were even as to who was more irritable, Kono or Steve. The flight back had been less than wonderful.

"Okay, Cath, bring us up to date," Steve instructed.

Catherine cleared her throat and took command of the room. "Donna Tagomori age twenty. Family hasn't seen her since Sunday afternoon. They say she doesn't have any friends but did give me a few places she likes to hang out. Since September she has chartered no less than thirty flights to Hilo. Her current proposed thesis is _The Perfect Crime_. The murder weapon is registered to Kim Dae Yung who just so happens to be Donna's godfather. She was the sole recipient of his personal effects."

"Now we need to find her," Chin said.

"The APB is out. Maybe we'll get a hit," Catherine said.

"It's late. Everyone head home. We'll pick things up in the morning. If we get nothing from the APB, we'll start visiting the haunts. For now, clear out," Steve ordered.

Catherine followed Steve into his office. "What do you say I grab some take out and we crash on the couch with a movie?"

Steve rolled his shoulders, grimacing with the tension. "I really need to stretch out. That plane ride was a killer. I'm going to run Koko Head. If you want to wait, I can grab something and bring it home after."

"No, that's okay. I'll grab something and you can reheat it when you get back. Maybe I can give you a massage afterwards."

Steve grinned. "That sounds like a plan." With a quick kiss, he left her to lock up the office.

Not knowing how long it would take to get Arianna's stuff moved, Steve grabbed a fast snack before heading for the docks. He arrived as Arianna was getting out of a full size man along with two guys and another woman. They were laughing and Arianna pushed one in the shoulder in jest.

Steve pulled up and got out of the truck when his daughter spotted him. "Steve, come over and meet my friends." Grabbing his arm, she dragged him over to stand near a container and the three people she was with. "Steve, this is Sharon, Doug and Jim. Guys, this is Steve McGarrett, an old friend of my mom's."

Steve shook hands with the others and figured out that while Sharon and Doug could fluently sign only Jim was hearing impaired. Arianna, bouncing with excitement, motioned to the container. "Let's get this thing unloaded. The furniture and my bike are in the front and the boxes are in the back. Steve, why don't you back up to the doors. It'll make it easier to load. Then we can switch with the van and load the boxes."

Everyone knew a good plan when they heard one. By the time the vehicles were shuffled around, Arianna had the shipping container opened and was inspecting the contents. Sharon was the designated traffic controller and stopped Steve when the bed was even with the door frame.

Steve managed to squeeze himself between the two objects to join the others inside. Looking around, he saw the hope chest and book case lashed to the walls, a dust covered, large object lashed to the opposite wall and the dozen or so boxes Arianna had told him about. Assessing the situation, Steve set out a plan of attack, "Let's get these loaded. We can secure the bookshelf to the tool box and the chest should sit right inside the tailgate. Where's the bike. It'll fit between the wheel wells and we can cover it with a blanket so it won't scratch the furniture."

Arianna and Sharon giggled. The two guys stared at him in awe. Arianna was the first to recover, "Remember he's military," she said as if that explained everything, which it must have because the others recovered and moved to do his bidding.

Arianna continued, "The bike's too big to fit in the truck. I'll ride it home." As she was talking, she walked over to the mystery object to pull the cover off.

Occupied loading the bookshelf and securing it, Steve didn't process her words until he jumped down from the bed. "What do you mean it won't fit?" is what he got out before he spotted the item in question, a beautiful blue and chrome Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Arianna caught his expression. "You like it?" she asked tentatively.

"Um, uh, yeah. Not the bike I was expecting though. I need to remember to ask you for details all the time, don't I," he answered.

"I'll give them to you back at the house. Let's get going," she chuckled.

The group quickly had everything packed into the two cars. Arianna grabbed a gasoline can from the back of the van after she'd dug through one box to pull out a full face helmet, painted eye searing orange with two black Celtic symbols on it. Steve shook his head in resignation. He couldn't blame his first grey hairs on his kid, but he could the many he'd acquired in the last two weeks.

The remaining moving process went smoothly except for the small argument between Arianna and Jim over him riding back to the house with her on the bike. She didn't have an extra helmet and she wouldn't budge. Steve decided grown men sulking wasn't a pretty sight.

Steve agreed to follow her to her place for a couple of reasons, one because she'd asked him to incase she broke down and two, he wanted to observe her riding skills. She maneuvered the bike through Honolulu traffic with ease and confidence. He made a mental note to ask Chin for a recommendation for a decent bike rental place so they could go riding together.

At the house they got the furniture and boxes inside with ease. Arianna had everything put in the spare room which Steve noticed she'd cleared out and cleaned in the last few days. The place looked nice, if a tad sparse and impersonal. Maybe what they picked up tonight would help make the house look like a home. Steve notice the new monitoring system, but as far as he could tell, there wasn't any security portion. He knew enough not to bring the topic up in front of her friends so he shelved it for later.

"Hey, we've got pizza on the way. You wanna stay and have some with us? I have to warn you, all I have to drink is water," Arianna asked him.

Steve was delighted she extended the invite. After the last few days, he'd fully expected to have to work through a cool period. Apparently all truly was forgiven. "You got one with ham and pineapple?"

"Of course. Wouldn't be a pizza without it," she answered cheerfully.

"Don't let Danny hear you say that unless you have an hour or so for his rebuttal."

The conversation flowed easily as the younger ones took turns telling Steve about the antics of his daughter in her youth. They, along with Jim's wife Ellie, had all known her since she was little and by coincidence, Sharon and Doug had lived in Hawaii but had also moved to Seattle in their teens. The group had managed to stay friends.

Arianna had regaled him with the tale of her beloved 2010 Harley Sportster Iron 883. It had been a custom order bike by one of Jenny's friends. The guy had moved in with Arianna and her mom but he'd turned out to be a jerk. He'd signed the bike over to Arianna in lieu of the rent payments and then took off for parts unknown. She doubled checked to make sure the bike wasn't 'hot' and fully paid for, then she welcomed it with eager arms. Despite the expense, she'd had it shipped because it was her pride and joy.

Steve noticed the time when the other's started making noise about leaving. Catherine was going to kill him. Kissing her cheek, he made Arianna promise to call him tomorrow and let him know how her first day went. He took his leave with the others.

Catherine greeted him at the door. "I was starting to worry. It's dark and you weren't answering your phone."

"Yeah, sorry about that. My phone died and I haven't had a chance to charge it. I decided to go for a drive rather than run. I forgot I didn't have my track shoes," he explained.

"Oh. Well, are you hungry? I've got the leftovers plated, ready to heat."

"Thanks, but I'm not really hungry. I'm going to hit the shower. I smell like a crowded airplane," he answered.

"Okay, well. I'll lock up and be up in a little while."

She let out a squeal when Steve grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close to nuzzle her ear. "You know, I wouldn't be adverse to having company in the shower."

Cath sank into the embrace, a smile tugging at her lips. "I'm pretty sure I know of someone who might be willing to join you."

"Oh, you do, do you? Be sure to tell her I have a girlfriend."

Swatting at his questing hands, she pulled away. "Who said it was a she?" Cath teased as she went to secure the house for the night. They made excellent use of the large hot water heater.


	14. Chapter 14

Thursday was a bust. The team spent all day canvasing their suspect's old haunts, interviewing the few friends she had and tracking useless tips they received from said friends. At this point, Donna Tagomori was in the wind.

Arianna called as Steve and Danny climbed into the Camaro after checking another dead end. Steve motioned for Danny to take the driver's seat as he got back out and dropped into the passenger side. "Hi. How'd your day go?"

"Good. Really good. I'm not fooled, but the kids were on their best behavior. It was fun, exciting, challenging. I can't wait for Monday and I have them to myself. Their current teacher didn't let them comment on the studies. She's more of a dictator, whereas I like the give and take of dialog."

"I'm glad you survived the first day. You know the only easy day was yesterday." Steve said, pride evident.

"That's a SEAL motto, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. Seems to always fit."

"I kinda like it. Do you have plans for supper? I thought I'd introduce you to my cooking." Arianna's good mood was contagious.

"I'd love to have you cook for me, but I promised Grace I'd go to her tennis match," Steve said.

"Another time then. Tell her I'm rooting for her," Arianna sighed.

Danny, who till this point had been trying hard not to jump in, slapped Steve on the arm. "Ask her to come with?"

"What was that?" Arianna asked. "The translator only caught part of the sentence."

"That was Danny. He's inviting you to come with."

"I don't know. Who else is going to be there.?" Arianna asked hesitantly.

Danny answered for him. "Grace's mom and little brother will be there, but we won't sit with them. Other than that, Steve, you and me."

There was a long pause before Arianna spoke again, choking on a laugh. "Steve, tell Danny that the translator doesn't differentiate between speakers. If he's going to join our conversations, he has to identify himself every time."

"This is Danny. Duly noted. So you coming or not? Waialae Country Club, 4:30."

"Fine. I'll come. I like spending time with Grace."

Affronted, Steve said, "Only Grace, what about me and Danny?"

"You two are okay, you know for being of the older generation and all," she teased.

Both men shouted, "Hey."

"Text me with the time and location so that I have it written down. I'll meet you there," Arianna went on.

"I could come and get you. It's not out of my way," Steve offered.

"Thanks, but the call of the bike is just too hard to resist. See you later," she replied.

"See you at the match," Steve said hanging up.

Steve turned to his partner. "What? What's with the look?"

"What look?" Danny scoffed.

"That look," Steve replied, making an air circle around Danny's face.

"It's nothing. I like this side of Steve McGarrett. It's refreshing," Danny answered.

"As opposed to the other sides of me?" Steve questioned indignantly.

"No, I like the other sides of you too, it's just that they're old, stale if you will. This side is a breath of fresh air," Danny explained.

"Whatever you say, partner," Steve sassed.

The team gathered for an end of day debrief. It was incredibly short. Steve and Danny were soon on their way to Grace's tennis match.

The partners arrived early enough that Danny had time to go wish Grace luck while Steve secured them the best seats he could find. He lucked out and found three seats four rows back from the net. The spot also gave him the advantage of being able to watch for Arianna. Danny didn't take too long and was soon seated next to his friend. Steve"s pick put them amongst some people Danny knew. Two couples and their children.

Danny barely finished introductions when one of the teenage boys nudged his buddy and pointed to the walkway. "Check her out. I'd like to see her in a tennis outfit."

The second boy let out a wolf whistle. "I'd like to see her out of one."

One of the dad's started to chastise the two but let out what sounded like a "Yummmm," instead, which earned him a head slap from his wife.

Steve and Danny swiveled around to see who the men were talking about. The woman in question had on jeans that should have been illegal and a button down shirt, unbuttoned and tied at the waist covering her tank top. Her chestnut hair hung in a braid over her shoulder. Her head was turned, scanning the crowd on the other side of the court. Steve almost let out an appreciative sound as well until he got a glimpse of her face. He started choking on his own spit; he had been ogling his own daughter. The only saving grace was Danny was making the same inarticulate noises. To cover up his faux pax, Steve wiped his hands on this jeans, stood up and waved to get Arianna's attention. She spotted him and waved back, making her way over to them.

Boy number one leaned over Steve's shoulder and growled, "You know her, brah? Would you introduce us?"

"Keep it in your pants, buddy. One, she's too old for you. Two, she's my daughter. Three, only if you forget the first two, her uncle and I carry guns for a living," Steve growled back. The young man hastily slid back in his seat and whispered into his buddy's ear. The threat didn't keep them from having to adjust their pants as the watched Arianna make her way up the steps and plop down into the spot between Steve and Danny. Danny caught their eyes and covertly flashed his badge, quickly pocketing it.

Unaware of the undercurrent, Arianna asked Danny, "Will Grace be in the first game?"

"No, she's in the second set. This is the semi-finals," he answered making sure to sign this time.

About mid-way through the first match, Steve got a phone call from his Aunt Deb, so he stepped away to take it. Danny watched Arianna watch him. "Seems like you've come to terms with this whole thing."

"Yeah. I guess I have. I admit there a times that I want to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming," she answered.

The drink vendor appeared around the corner. Danny being his observant self, noticed the slight frown on Arianna's face as she nonchalantly checked her wallet, then put it back into her purse. He waited for Steve to come back, then he jumped up and said, "I'll be right back."

Arianna looked at Steve, clearly perplexed.

"Don't look at me. I don't know what's going on in his brain half the time as it is," Steve defended himself.

Danny came back with four bottles of water. "The fourth one's for Grace when she's done." His compatriots found bottles of their own shoved into their hands.

Steve shrugged, "Thanks, man."

"Yes, thank you, Danny." Arianna gratefully swallowed a quarter of the bottle.

It was Grace's turn on the court. The three were readily engrossed in the match. The little girl played her hardest but ended up losing to her opponent. Danny said his goodbyes and rushed down the stairs to console his baby.

Arianna stood and stretched, her shirt riding up in the back. Steve glower prevented the teens behind them from commenting again.

"It's too bad she lost. She pretty good for her age," Arianna said.

"Yeah, she is. She'll be excited you came. Danny says she's quite taken with you."

"Grace is a good kid. I like her too."

Checking his watch, Steve found it earlier than he expected. "Have you had dinner? We could swing by Rainbow on the way home."

"Oh, I haven't been to Rainbow since I've been back, but I shouldn't. I've got work tomorrow and I'm not use to getting up," she answered.

"You've got to eat. I'm buying and arguing any further is pointless," Steve declared.

"Well, if you feel that strongly about it. I would love to join you at Rainbow for supper," Arianna yielded.

Arianna parked her bike next to Steve's truck and joined him in the cab so they could enjoy their food in relative comfort. The pair ate in comfortable silence, simply enjoying each other's company and the food.

All too soon for Steve's liking, it was time to head home. Pulling her in for a quick hug, Steve wished Arianna a good night, promising to talk to her after school. It wasn't until he opened the door to an empty house did Steve remember that Catherine had told him she was staying at her place tonight.

Steve pulled everyone together at the tech table first thing Friday morning. "Okay, people tell me we've got something on our suspect and I've been too distracted to see it," he pleaded.

"Wish we could, boss," Chin said. "Everything yesterday was a bust."

"Do you think she got off the island somehow?" Catherine threw out.

"I guess it's possible. She does have a good head start on us, but there's been no activity on her accounts or credit cards," Kono said.

"I hate dead ends," Danny exclaimed.

"Let's double check everything. Maybe we'll get lucky," Steve stated.

Three hours later, they did. Steve's phone rang and a whispered voice asked, "Is this Commander McGarrett?"

"This is Commander McGarrett. Who am I speaking with?"

Steve didn't think it was possible, but the voice became even quieter. "This is Bonnie Tagomori. Donna called and she's on her way over."

Steve rushed out of his office and snapped his fingers to get the others' attention. Putting the phone on speaker, he laid it on the table. "Mrs. Tagomori are you at your house?"

"Yes. I'm in the pantry. I don't want my children to hear me. I don't want them to know I've turned their sister in."

"Okay, Mrs. Tagomori, how long until Donna arrives?"

"She said she'd be her within the hour."

"Please hurry." Her voice became less distinctive. "I'm looking for some soup. I'll be there in minute." The whisper was stronger again when she said, "Sorry, my kids are looking for me. Please hurry. I'll leave the front and side doors unlocked." The line went dead.

"All right. Grab your gear. Let's go," Steve commanded.

The Tagomori house sat on a corner lot surrounded by trees and overgrown vines. Steve and Danny took the front door, Kono and Catherine went around back and Chin covered the side door. When everyone was in position, Steve twisted the handle to open the door a little bit ahead of announcing their presence, "Donna Tagomori, this is Five-0. You're under arrest, come out with your hands up."

Loud screeching proceeded the dueling sounds of Kono saying, "She got past us" and splashes from the back of the house. Danny and Steve leapt of the porch to run around the corner. A blur of movement pushed Danny into some bushes as it charged around the pair. Chin managed to get a grip on their fleeing suspect, but lost it as she swung her fist connecting with his eye. Steve tackled her to the ground yet wasn't able to gain control as she rammed her elbow into his nose. Danny joined the fray again and between the three of them they finally managed to subdue and cuff her.

A very wet Catherine came slogging around the corner of the house with a mirthful Kono, the only one untouched. HPD and the EMT's pulled up to the surprise of the team. Donna's family stood on the front stoop nervously watching the action.

"Duke, how'd you know," Steve asked, ignoring the blood gushing from his nose.

A young boy stepped off the porch to walk to the waiting group. "I'm sorry, Donna. I call 911. You shouldn't do bad things. You need to be punished."

"You little creep. I can't believe you're my brother. Whatever happened to protecting family…."

Whatever else she was going to say was cut off by Steve roughly shoving her towards Danny and saying, "Book 'em, Danno."

Danny predictably mutter under his breath as he frog marched the woman over to a waiting squad.

"Commander, Lieutenant, let's check out those wounds shall we," the helpful EMT urged. As Chin's eye was completely swollen shut with bruising fanning out to his jawline and Steve's blood loss was not slowing down, the pair didn't put up a fight.

The EMT's insisted both men go to the hospital for x-rays so Danny was left in charge. He sent Catherine home to dry off and stay there, her day was done. He swiveled to face Kono. "Guess that leave you and me to do the clean up and booking."

"Guess so. Let's get on it. I can't wait to interrogate that pupule wahine."

After being thoroughly examined, poked and prodded, Chin and Steve were released with lists of do's and don'ts and painkillers. Chin looked like he'd gone ten rounds and come out the loser. The whole side of his face was swollen, black and blue. Steve wasn't much better. His nose was taped up to hold the broken cartilage in place and both of his eyes were black. They pathetic pair made it to HQ to start on all the paperwork.

The place was quiet with just the two of them. Danny'd left a message to let them know Catherine was home for the day and the suspect was being a tad uncooperative until Kono turned on the charm. The two of the were going to head home after they were done. Paperwork could wait till Monday. He also reminded Steve they needed to wear ties to court because it was Judge Meyers. He sounded disgruntled at that.

A couple of hours later, Steve was ready to suggest they call it quits for the day. Neither of them had been real productive. Chin had spent the last half hour holding an ice pack on his face with his head tilted back in his chair. Steve had the beginnings of a monstrous headache. Yeah, it was time to go home. Before he could tell Chin, the whirling dervish that is his daughter flew into his office, leaving her escort in the dust.

Chin, hearing the commotion, cracked open his one good eye to watch a young lady barrel her way into the boss's office. Chin recognized her from her previous visit. This time wasn't as cool and collected as last. The girl appeared to be reading Steve the riot act, her hands moving at lightening speed while she paced in front of his desk. Chin briefly wished he could hear what she was saying as whatever it was had Steve frozen in place. This went on for a several minutes. Every once in a while Steve would make an abortive move. Finally Steve stood up, walked around his desk, stopped her mid-stride, grabbed both her hands and pulled her into a hug. She relaxed instantly, wrapping her arms around him, grabbing the back of his shirt in what appeared to be a death grip. The pair stayed that way until the tension slowly eased out of her arms.

Steve pulled back, holding her face in his hands. Chin watched as she took a visibly deep breath, not as upset as she had been. He felt a little guilty for snooping on an obvious personal moment. He wondered again who the young woman was to Steve. Chin held his boss in the highest regard and until this moment he never would've entertained the idea that the man would be an adulterer. Not exactly the correct term as Steve and Catherine weren't married, but Chi couldn't come up with a better description. He watched the two separate and the girl head towards the washrooms. Steve was headed towards him.

Arianna's day had been stressful. The exiting teacher had definite ideas on how things should be taught and expected Arianna to follow through when she took over. The homework assignment alone would've made a grown man cry. Which is why when she picked up her voicemail, she acted on gut instinct. When asked later, she couldn't tell you how she made it from school to Five-0 HQ without being in an accident.

She couldn't control her anxiety, barely keeping it together long enough to pass through security, get her visitors badge and assigned escort. The poor man had to run to keep up with her as she chose the stairs over the elevator, going up them two at a time.

Steve's shocked face didn't register as she let loose. "What the hell! Are you seriously that stupid? Cause if you are, I need to rethink my opinion of you. Imagine my surprise when I picked up my voicemail, expecting it to be my father with words of encouragement but instead it's Queen's medical informing me that my father has been admitted to the hospital and as one of his ICE's, would I please contact them as soon as possible. So, I'm completely stunned by this revelation as said father forgot to tell me he'd made me his ICE in the first place. However, trying to be the good daughter that I want to be and the fact I am now scared out of my mind, I call the hospital only to be told that Steve McGarrett had signed himself out AMA to return to work. AMA! Really! What kind of idiot signs themselves out AMA to go to work? Don't answer that. I really don't want to know. This is the kind of shit Mom use to pull all the time. I felt like her full time babysitter and now I have to be yours? No. I. Don't. Think so. I want a parent, not some overgrown child who cant't take care of himself. Didn't all those years in the Navy teach you how to take care of yourself and to follow the orders of someone who has more experience and expertise than you? I don't want to be in this position again."

Her tirade continued. About midway through she was so worked up that she quit talking and only signed. Her hands moved so fast that Steve caught only a fraction of what she was yelling at him. It was time for action before she exploded.

He managed to unglue himself from the chair and move to intercept her. A little fearful of her busy hands, he grabbed them, pulling her into a tight hug. She collapsed against him immediately, starting to sob into his shirt. He held on, rubbing her back until the sobs turned to hiccups. Pulling back, her clasped her face, wiping the tears with his thumbs. When he was sure he had her attention, he began to speak. "Honey, I'm so sorry you were worried. I'm fine and I didn't check out AMA, I was released after they set my nose. I'm okay."

"They didn't tell me what your injuries were, just that you'd checked out," she hiccuped.

"It's not a big deal, some broken cartilage in my nose which resulted in the black eyes. Nothing life threatening. Though I may have a slight roguish crook to my nose" he comforted.

Leaning back in his arms, she gave him a good once over. "You look like shit."

"I guess I deserve that," Steve chuckled.

"Yes, you do for scaring me half to death. Why didn't you tell me you'd made me one of your ICE's?"

"With everything going on, it slipped my mind. Sorry about that," he apologized.

"It's okay, just make sure you let me know the next time you make a big change. You sure you're okay?" she asked, still concerned.

"I'm good. Why don't you go to the washroom and wash your face. You don't look so hot either what with your red nose and puffy eyes," he teased. That earned him a slap on the arm. "Hey, be nice or I won't feed you."

"Like I believe that. Which way to the washroom?" she asked, some of her snark coming back.

Steve followed her progress then swung his attention to Chin's office. The older man was still lounging in his chair, but he wasn't fooling Steve. The SEAL straightened his spine and walked over to knock on Chin's door. Chin waved him in.

"How much of that did you catch?" Steve asked without preamble.

"Enough to know you have a close relationship with that young lady. I couldn't hear anything, but actions often speak louder than words," Chin replied.

"Yeah, they do," Steve admitted.

"Look, Steve, your personal life is your business, but when it spills over into the office, it affects all of us," Chin stated.

Steve was honestly confused. "What are you trying to say?"

Chin sighed. He really didn't want to say it aloud but it seemed he needed to. "Do you really think it's a good idea to bring your mistress in here to work when your girlfriend works here too? While we're being honest, she's a little young, don't you think?"

Steve was pole axed. "You think Arianna is my girlfriend? I would hope you know me better than that but I guess not."

"She's not your girl-on-the-side? That little scene was fairly intimate," Chin replied calmly.

"Yes it was," Steve admitted, "but it's the closeness of a family connection. She's my daughter, Chin."

Chin barely had time to redirect his thoughts and school his expression before their topic of conversation returned to the offices. Steve opened Chin's door, motioning for Arianna to join them.

The young lady was beet red with embarrassment. "How much does he know?" she asked Steve.

"He watched the tornado that appeared in my office, at least enough to draw some conclusions," Steve told her.

From his face, Arianna could guess exactly what those conclusions were. "You set him straight, right?"

"Yes. Arianna, this is Chin Ho Kelly, a member of the Five-0 team and usually a good detective. Chin, this is Arianna McGarrett, my force of nature daughter."

Rising, Chin extended his hand sheepishly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Shaking his hand first, she pulled back so she could sign as she answered, "It's nice to meet you too." Studying the two men closely, she cracked a smile. "Please tell me you two took on a gang of fifteen men or at minimum a 400 lb. sumo wrestler."

The bruising hid their blushes, but their squirming was out there for all to see. "Not exactly," Chin whispered.

Arianna couldn't see his lips move well enough to understand him so she peered at Steve to get the answer. "More like a 115 lb. co-ed."

Stunned, Arianna shifted her gaze back and forth between the guys. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I read that correctly. Did you say a skinny co-ed took you both out?" Her question was confirmed by the fact the two looked like they wished the floor would open up and swallow them.

"Okay, then. Remind me to call, Danny when I need muscle," she teased.

"Danny got pushed into the bushes," Steve cried in their defense. "Kono's the only one that came out unscathed."

"Then I'll call Kono," Arianna stated, trying not to snicker.

Suddenly uncomfortable, Steve cleared his throat. "Speaking of the others, Chin, this obviously isn't public knowledge yet. Danny knows but no one else does. We'd appreciate it if you'd keep this under wraps until we're ready to announce it."

"Not a problem, brah. I'll not say a word. Sorry about the misunderstanding," Chin said.

Steve let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Thanks, man."

"It's the least I can do after making assumptions. Why don't you two head out. I'll make sure everything is shut down. Oh, and whatever you did to piss her off, I wouldn't do again. She looks stronger than today's suspect. She could definitely take you."

"I've no doubt she could," Steve laughed, relieving the tension he'd built up. "You sure about locking up?" At Chin's nod, Steve continued, "I'll owe you one. Thanks, brah."

"Shoots."

Steve led Arianna out of the offices to the parking lot. They'd reached Steve's truck when she said, "Hey, how about I cook you the dinner I owe you? I make a mean stir-fry."

"Sounds good," he replied.

"Cool. I need to stop at the grocery so how about we meet at my place in say an hour?" she suggested.

"Why don't I just go with you? You're on your bike and have no where to put groceries. I can follow you and bring the groceries when we're done," Steve countered.

"That's not really necessary. I can fit everything in the saddlebags. Besides you don't look up to tackling food shopping."

"I told you, I'm fine. Now come on. You argue more than Danny."

Despite her reservations, Arianna cut her loses, agreeing to meet him at the Safeway nearest her place. Steve managed to curb his instinct to follow her to where she'd parked the bike. Win, win.

It was the shopping trip from hell for Arianna. Every time she skipped an ingredient because it wasn't on sale or it didn't match her coupon, she'd find it in her cart five seconds later and the item was usually the top brand. Steve guarded the cart like it was Fort Knox, once something went in, it didn't come back out. When she turned back around after looking for some peppers, the beef she'd place in cart had been replaced with a better cut. She'd finally had enough. "You are very lucky, my friend, that we are in a public place or you'd be on the receiving end of my temper. Knock it off. I'm making this dinner."

Steve grinned, taking the peppers from her hand, adding them to the cart. "Why do you find it so difficult to let me help?"

"Again, you are lucky this is a public place. We're not discussing this here." Reaching into the cart, she pulled out several items and thrust them into his arms. "Go put these away. I'll meet you at the check out."

Contrary to Danny's statements, Steve did know when to give in. He quietly took the items and sauntered off to do Arianna's bidding. By the time he found her, she'd already checked out an was waiting for him by the door. If he noticed there were fewer bags than there should have been, he wisely kept it to himself.

Arianna pushed him into a kitchen chair, to observe, while she put together their meal with quiet efficiency. She babbled while she chopped vegetables and got the meat into the wok. Steve admired the how proficient she was with a knife and told her so.

"Mom taught me. She was a short order cook."

"Jenny became a chef? She always wanted to be a nurse if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, well that went out the window when I came along and don't use the term chef. As she would say, she didn't go to school to earn that title. She got her GED and started working at a small burger joint downtown. She worked her way up into the kitchen when the cook got sick and she filled in. Soon she was the head of the kitchen. When we moved to Seattle, we were actually following Sharon and Doug's parents. They'd offered Mom a job in the restaurant they'd open there."

"So what you're telling me is I ruined Jenny's dreams," Steve said ruefully.

"No, not at all. You….. changed them. She was really happy cooking and she passed some of it on to me." Arianna assured him. "Are you ready for some decent stir-fry?"

Steve took the proffered plate, inhaling the tantalizing scent. "Hope this tastes as good as it smells."

"Me too."

The first bite met expectations as did the second and third. Steve glanced around the kitchen, taking in the changes since he'd been there. "So, explain the monitoring system to me," he requested pointing to the small monitor tucked under the cabinet.

"The system is hooked up to the doorbell, the fire alarms and the carbon monoxide detectors. There's a series of flashes that go off when when of those is activated. There's a monitor in here, the living room, my bedroom and the bathroom. If I want, there's a camera on the front door that I can turn on to see who's there. There's also a vibrating device for the bedroom to wake me up if I'm sleeping," Ariana clarified.

"You didn't mention any of the security part," Steve pointed out.

"That's because there isn't yet. I went with the necessities first. The others are extras."

"Arianna, I wasn't kidding about you being a potential target because of my job and my past," Steve warned.

"I know you weren't, but they couldn't do everything at once," she answered.

"So you are planning on getting the rest of the system? Back door, windows, links to an alarm company?" Steve questioned.

"Yes, I will be getting the extended package," Arianna confirmed without telling him how long it would be before that happened.

"Good. I worry about you by yourself," Steve admitted.

Arianna gave him a smug smile. "Thanks. I'm worth worrying about."

Steve's phone chose that moment to ring loudly. Hoping it wasn't a case, Steve excused himself to take the call. "McGarrett."

"Hello, McGarrett, why so formal," the soft voice on the other end replied.

"Catherine, sorry. I didn't look at the caller id. What's up?"

"Just sitting here, nice and dry, wondering how you faired. You didn't call after you left the hospital and I haven't heard from anyone else," she told him.

"Oh, sorry about that. Chin and I went back to HQ afterwards to start paperwork. Danny and Kono finished with the booking and left. My head was killing me when I left. I didn't even think to call, sorry," he excused himself.

"Understandable. What did the doc say?" she asked, a little miffed despite her words.

"Broken nose and two black eyes. Chin's got no lasting damage, but his shiner takes up the whole side of his face. We're good though."

"Hopefully you're home resting," she stated.

"Actually, I'm having dinner with my friend. We ran into each other as I was leaving the office," Steve said, half truthfully.

"So what are your plans for tomorrow," she asked.

"I'm spending the morning and early afternoon helping my friend, but after that nothing. You have something in mind, Rollins?"

"I just might. Wanna swing by say about seven and I'll let you know," she said suggestively.

"I'll be there," Steve confirmed.

"See you tomorrow night then," she said as she hung up.

Steve returned to the kitchen to find Arianna doing the dishes. "Let me help you load the dishwasher," he offered.

"That's okay. I'm gonna do these by hand as there isn't that many," she answered.

"Can I at least dry?" He credited his Navy skills for allowing him to catch the towel that was whipped at him.

"Have at, my friend," she taunted.

They speedily finished the few remaining dishes. Arianna was drying her hands when she asked, "Were you serious about helping get the car running?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I'd planned on using my bike most of the time. Save the gas and all, but I forgot that Hawaii has a rainy season and unless I get waterproof saddlebags, papers are going to get wet. I fiddled with it, but I can't get it to turn over and I was wondering if you'd have time sometime this week to look at it," she said.

Steve pretended to consider her request until she nudged his shoulder, "So can you?"

"How bout tomorrow?" he said.

"That would be fantastic," she squealed, giving him a big hug. Steve found he liked his little girl hugging him.

"Good. I'll be over say nine or so."

"That's good. Despite previous evidence, I'm not one to sleep in," she informed him.

"I won't tell anyone if you're still in your jammies when I get here," he teased.

She shooed him out the door, laughing the whole time.


	15. Chapter 15

True to his word, Steve pulled into Arianna's drive at nine on the dot. What he didn't expect was to find his daughter standing on a ladder, trimming the dead out of the tree in the front yard. She'd been at it for a while if the pile of debris stacked to the side was any indication. Taking a closer look as he got out, he saw that she'd already attacked the hedges across the front. He made note to check the foundation now that he could get to it. A very loud, "Timber," caught his attention. He looked around in time to see a large branch come crashing down into the middle of the yard.

Walking to the ladder, he steadied it as Arianna climbed down. "Been busy, I see," he said when she reached the ground.

"It was bugging me," she stated simply.

"Do you want help or should I get on the car?" he asked, chuckling at her tone.

"I'm good. I unlocked the door. Oh, before I forget, when you're in there would you mind checking it out to see if there's any way I can get the bike in there with the car? I'm tired of pushing it around to the back to lock it up," she asked in a rush as if she was ashamed to ask.

"I'll see what I can do," Steve responded, giving her a puzzled look.

"Fine! You caught me. I suck at spacial relations. I can't visualize if simply move this to there or take this out, the bike would fit. I need some help with that part. I can move the stuff," she admitted in a huff of embarrassment.

"Good thing you didn't become an interior designer then. I'll figure it out, okay?" Steve said lightly to ease her unease.

"Thanks," she whispered. Kissing her forehead, Steve ambled to the garage, hefting open the heavy would door. Arianna went back to her yard work.

The morning wore on with Steve occasionally coming out to grab something from his toolbox and Arianna bringing him fresh glasses of ice tea and water. Neither was fooled by the other's intent of checking up on one another.

It was nearing noon when Steve emerged, wiping the grease off his hands. Arianna was bundling up her yard waste. He silently helped her until the last pile was taken care of. "What're you going to do with all this?" he asked.

Arianna shrugged. "If I call the city, they'll come haul it away, but there's a fee, so I'm going to wait until I get the back done and call. They only charge a pick up fee, not a tonnage fee," she answered.

Steve surveyed the impressive piles. "How 'bout I haul this away. The transfer station doesn't charge if you have local plates."

When he saw she was about to refuse, he pushed on, "That way you won't have this laying around until you find the time after work to take care of everything and you won't run the risk of the neighbors complaining."

"Sure, use logic on me. All right, but I feed you lunch first and you let me help. There's more than one load here," she yielded.

"Deal," Steve said, feeling like he'd won a major victory. He made her shake hands on it just to be annoying.

They consumed salads made with the extras from last night's meal accompanied by a homemade dressing Steve demanded the recipe for. The hot Hawaiian sun pounded on them as they loaded the truck and it was two very grateful workers who piled in and blasted the AC.

They talked briefly about their individual plans for Sunday after the last load was done. Steve telling her about surfing with Danny and Catherine. Arianna telling him about church and working on her lesson plans. Somewhere in there, Steve ran Arianna through what he'd done to the car and what he'd rearranged to make room for her motorbike. All she'd have to do is back the car up and pull in a bit more to the left. That earned him a black look (for not waiting for her) and a kiss on the cheek (in gratitude). They hugged goodbye and Steve headed home to clean up for his date with Catherine.

Military training ingrained, Steve arrived precisely on time to pick up his date. Scanning the interior of the front of the cab to check for anything out of place, he missed the books in the backseat that had spilled out of his case. Catherine was ready when he knocked on the door.

Steve who whistled. "You look amazing," he stammered, taking in her halter top sundress and upswept hair.

"Thank you."

"I feel a bit underdressed," he commented, indicating his jeans and button down.

"You look fine. The place isn't that fancy," she said.

Catherine walked around the back of the truck as Steve came up the side to open the door for her. She didn't miss the leaf debris in the bed nor did she miss the sign language books lying in the backseat.

Jumping in, Steve asked, "So, where're are we headed?"

"There's this place up on the North Shore I heard about, Hamasaki's. It's suppose to have excellent Japanese. You heard of it?" she stated.

Steve tried hard to school his expression. "Yeah. I've been there a couple of times. It's good."

"You okay with going there?" she asked, suddenly nervous.

"Yeah, I'm good. Let's go have some Japanese," Steve responded firmly.

"You doing some yard work?" she casually asked.

"No. Why?"

"There's yard tailings in the bed. I figured you'd done some trimming."

"Not me. I hauled away some stuff for a buddy so they wouldn't have to pay the city for removal," Steve explained.

"You've been helping a lot of friends lately," Catherine fished.

"Not really. Just one or two. You know how it is, when one asks it seems like others do to," Steve replied.

"Yeah and you never could say no," Catherine baited.

Steve gave her a goofy grin, returning his attention to the road. They completed the drive in companionable silence. The parking lot was full when Steve pulled in. He dropped Catherine at the door to get their name on the wait list while he searched for a spot. He managed to find one in the far back. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure he'd pulled up far enough to be out of the way, he caught site of the spilled books. Once he shut the engine off, he reached over to shove everything back in the bag, hoping Catherine hadn't saw them.

Jogging to the front, he finds Cath standing outside with a pager in her hand. "What's our wait?"

"Not bad. Twenty minutes," she tells him. He nods in agreement. "Hey, I forgot to tell you. I got my two week drill notice. Starts next Monday."

"But you just had your weekend. Their not giving you anytime," Steve comments.

"I know, but it's kinda an extension of what we were doing on the weekend and they don't want to let too much time pass. Will you show me where to pull the forms on Monday?"

"Uh, sure. No wait. Danny and I are in court on Monday. Chin knows where they're at. You know, as your boss, I say thanks so much for the short notice. As your boyfriend, I say screw the Navy. Stay home."

"I'd love to hear you tell my CO that, sailor boy," Cath said, running her had down his arm.

"I don't suppose either of those would go over so well," Steve acknowledged.

"No, I don't think they would either. Oh, hey, it's us. Boy, that was fast," Cath said looking down at the pager.

"Let's go get our table, by lady," Steve joked.

The hostess was the same one as when he was here with Arianna and to his disappointment, she immediately recognized him. "Only two tonight, sir?" she asked searching behind him as if she expected someone else to magically appear.

"Yes, just two," he replied.

"We have the same table available if you'd like."

"That would be fine," Steve replied, shifting uncomfortably.

The young girl led them to the table he and Arianna had occupied. "Here you go. Your waitress is Amy and she'll be right with you." Steve lured into a false sense of security as the hostess started to walk away, pulled out Cath's chair for her. He was halfway into his own when the girl turned back. "You know I just have to say you and your, uh, um, friend, inspired me the other night. I'm going to study sign language to become an interpreter like you. I want to say thank you."

Steve wanting nothing more than to crawl under the table and vanish, managed to get out a strangled, "You're welcome. I'm sure you'll be good at it."

Steve knew from Catherine's expression he was in for it. He prayed she left enough of him to make it home. For her part, Catherine remained silent, only speaking when the waitress took their order. When she left, the damn broke. "You want to explain to me what the hostess meant?"

Steve's mental mantra 'stick close to the truth, don't embellish' screeched to a halt at her question. "I was here a while back. Remember the girl from my office a couple of week's ago? Well, she's the daughter of an old friend and we came here for dinner."

"Why would you bring the daughter of a friend out to dinner?" Catherine asked, her voice cold.

"She came to me for help. We needed to eat," Steve answered, aware he was on thin ice.

"So you brought her all the way out here to the North Shore for food?"

"She likes Japanese."

"Where is this old friend?" Catherine pressed.

"Dead," Steve replied succinctly.

"I'm sorry. What?"

"My friend passed away. I'm helping the daughter get settled back on the island," Steve explained.

"Is this the same friend you've been helping out lately?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Catherine asked, hurt.

"What?! We don't share everything. This is private," Steve exclaimed.

"Apparently," she growled with distain.

"Like you tell me everything. It's a two way street, Cath."

Catherine had no comeback. Steve was right, she didn't tell him everything either. "Are you ever going to introduce us?" she questioned, trying to make it light.

"When she's ready. She's a bit shy. Why so curious?"

"You have been spending quite a bit of time with her. It seems like she's going to be a part of your life and I'd like to meet her is all," she said.

Steve recognized that look. "Are you jealous? Jeez, Cath, she's young enough to be my daughter," he muttered angrily.

"I'm not jealous and I hardly doubt she's that young. I have seen her, remember."

"If you only knew," Steve thought. He was saved from a reply by the arrival of their food.

They ate in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Steve caved. "Are we done here? With this argument?"

Cath brought her eyes to his. "I don't know, _are_ we done here?"

"Cath, she's a friend. Honestly."

"Okay, I believe you."

"Good," he stated. Taking a bite of his ahi, he gathered his courage while he chewed. "Danny and I are going surfing tomorrow. Would you like to go with?"

"I'd like that. You didn't explain the sign language part," she replied.

"She's deaf," Steve said simply.

"So that explains the books I saw in the truck."

"I'm trying to learn so she doesn't have to read my lips all the time," he informed her.

"That's nice of you," she claimed. They passed trivial conversation for the remainder of the meal.

While Steve stuck to water during dinner, Catherine indulged in three glasses of wine. Either the alcohol mellowed her or she had completely forgiven him (or a combination of the two) because the make up sex they shared in Steve's bed was the best he'd ever had. Catherine even agreed to stay the night.

The rest of the weekend went pretty much according to plan. Steve and Cath met up with Danny to ride some waves. Steve immediately discovered that trying to breath through a broken nose and surf at the same time was considerably harder than he'd expected. He also learned that the end of one's board, salt water and aforementioned broken nose is not a combination that is conducive to one's well being. He sat on the beach, eating shaved ice while the other two played. At one point, he gave into temptation and called to check up on his daughter.

Monday morning came no matter how hard Danny and Steve tried to prevent it. The last place either man wanted to be was in a holding room waiting on ADA Kioki to call on them. Even though the man promised their testimony would be done by Monday afternoon, from previous experience they knew they'd be there at least until Tuesday afternoon. Steve's pack contained his tablet and his sign language books. Danny's pack held his tablet, _The Monuments Men_ and a copy of Grace's English report to proof read.

Chin, Kono and Catherine were all giddy that they weren't the ones in court. So giddy in fact that they happily dug into the paperwork for the museum heist. It was a very, very pleasant day for the three of them. They met up with the rest of their team at Side Street at the end of the day.

"From the looks on your faces, I'm afraid to ask how court went," Kono blurted out when the guys sat down at their table.

"Nah, it was wonderful, fabulous in fact," Danny spouted. "We were locked in a 8x15 room with a window that wouldn't open, a jittery used car salesman and tons of time on our hands. The bright spot is McGarrett's very colorful face seem to make the clerk nervous. She'd look at him and then take a step backwards every time."

"Danny, it wasn't that bad. She didn't step back every time. The one time she scooted sideways and then backwards," Steve corrected.

"You are right, my friend. You are entirely right," Danny laughed. Taking a long pull of his beer, he continued, "The sideways step almost caused her to trip over a chair."

"So I take it you guys didn't get called today?" Catherine surmised.

"Are you kidding? At the rate Kioki is going, we'll be lucky if it's Thursday when we take the stand," Danny stated.

"Come on, Kioki isn't that bad," Chin said.

"No, Danny's correct. Kioki barely finished his opening statement from what the clerk said. We're not the first witnesses either, so it may very well be Thursday," Steve confirmed.

"Can't he let you guys work until he's ready to call you?" Catherine asked.

A chorus of 'No's" reverberated around her. "You have yet to experience ADA Kioki," Chin told her, "He's rather particular."

"Just say it, cuz. He's anal," Kono declared.

"He sure is. He even went so far as to make noises about postponing Steve's testimony until he was no longer 'disfigured'", Danny added. Patting Steve on the shoulder, he continued, "I have to hand it to you, buddy. That 1000 yard death stare is about a million times more effectual when you have two black eyes. Kioki backed down pretty quick after that."

"There's no way I'm gonna sit twiddling my thumbs for two weeks just because my face doesn't meet with his approval," Steve declared.

"I'm surprised he didn't recommend make-up," Kono said.

"Oh, god save me now," Steve groaned. "If he gets wind of your suggestion, I'm going to hold you responsible for my fine for contempt of court."

"No worries, boss. We'll have your back," Kono assured him.

"Wow, I actually feel for you guys now," Catherine said. "I was thinking it might be kinda nice to sit around , not having to worry about a case, but I've changed my mind. I'll take the action any day."

"Hey, at least we both got the proofread Grace's paper. She's definitely getting an A," Steve announced.

"Well, at least that's something," Chin intoned.

Whether it's a sign of age or tiredness, three rounds was all the group could handle. They called it an early night and headed their separate ways.

Even though it was only 9:30, Steve decided to hit the sack. Who knew sitting around doing nothing would be more tiring than chasing bad guy all day? He was about to turn off the bedside lamp when his phone buzzed a text message. Grabbing the phone from the nightstand, he smiled when at his daughter's picture.

_hope im not waking you. wanted 2 chk in c how court went_

_wasnt asleep yet. court sucked_

_u done?_

_i wish. have 2 go back 2morrow_

_sorry :(_

_i will live. u have a good day?_

_i did. b glad when get through all the previous teachers leftovers_

_hang in there_

_u 2. nite pops_

_nite princess_

Steve fell asleep wondering when she was going to feel comfortable enough to call him dad.


	16. Chapter 16

Danny brought a deck a cards with him on Tuesday. They both whiled away the day checking the updates on the new case the team caught.

Chin got nomally voted "substitute bossman for duration of the trial" by Kono and Catherine. When the call came in that they had a case out on the Likelike Hwy., there was no doubt who was in charge.

The trio arrived on the scene to be greeted by Sgt. Lukela and a half dozen uniforms. "Hey, Duke, what have we got?" Chin asked, taking in the armored car, the three guards and the lack of cargo.

"This is a tricky one, Chin," the normally unflappable officer answered.

"What do you mean, tricky?" Kono asked.

"The guards say it was SWAT." At Chin's raised eyebrows, Duke pointed at the men being attended to by EMT's. "Maybe it's best if you hear it directly from them."

Chin looked to his teammates. "Okay, we each take one. Then we'll see if their stories match."

It took a few moments for the EMT"s to clear the men and then the Five-0 team advanced. Chin took the driver. "Hi, I'm Lt. Kelly. I know you already told the other officers, but you would mind telling me again what happened?"

The man stared blankly at him with blood shot eyes. Chin thought he might be in shock, but he soon started speaking. "We do the pick ups in the morning as there aren't any big stops along this stretch, but the little ones add up." Realizing he wasn't answering the question, the many shook himself and started again, "I heard sirens so I checked the side mirrors. A SWAT vehicle was approaching really fast. Even though there wasn't any oncoming traffic, I pulled over to let them pass. I was surprised when they pulled in behind us. I watched the driver and passenger get out. They were dressed in full gear. I thought maybe they were checking for a hijacked truck or something, so I rolled the window down. The next thing I knew, the cab was filled with smoke and my eyes were burning like a son-of-a-bitch. I couldn't see a thing. I heard Monty swear because he couldn't get the door open. Mine was yanked open and I felt the guy reach past me. I figure that's when they hit the manual release for the back. They pulled us both out and zip tied our hands and feet. Monty was cussing up a storm so they duct taped his mouth. The rest is a blur. I watched the SWAT truck pull away and they went down the highway without lights."

"Did you by chance get a good look at the man as he came up in the mirror?" Chin asked gently, handing the guard a nearby bottle of water.

The guard took a grateful gulp. "He had one of those gas masks on. I couldn't identify him if I tried."

"What you do remember is great. I'm going to leave you with my card. If you remember anything else, please call," Chin requested. The man nodded his understanding.

Chin went around to the back of the truck. "What can you tell me?" he asked the nearest officer.

"All the bags have been cut along the bottom seam. There's nothing left," the officer answered.

"How about the onboard video?" Chin continued.

"Gone."

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" Chin queried, not sure he'd heard right.

"The cameras were all taken off, probably with a blow torch and the onboard recorder, completely removed."

"Wow, these guys were thorough," Chin stated. "My guess is we won't find any foreign prints either."

"Probably not," Kono answered from behind him. "The guard in the back said the three guys he saw all had complete gloves on. Not even a shooter's finger. He also got a look at the plate before they knocked him out."

"Run it. See if it's one of ours," Chin instructed.

"See what I mean," Duke said next to him.

"I wish McGarrett was here. I really don't want to be the one to tell Grover he's got a rogue team," Chin sighed.

"I hear ya, brother. Where's Steve and Danny anyways?"

"One, word. Kioki," Chin answered. Duke winced in sympathy.

Catherine, finished with her witness, came to stand beside the two men. "I haven't heard that much swearing since the last time I was out to sea."

"That bad, huh. You get anything from him?" Chin asked.

"Reading between the cuss words, I parsed out that they pulled over for a SWAT vehicle. A man approached on his side. The cab was filled with tear gas and he was yanked out, zip tied and duck taped. The guy didn't talk even when our victim taunted him."

"That matches the driver's story. So we're dealing with five guys minimum, obviously pros. Why did the guy mention the robber didn't speak? It's a bit strange." Chin pointed out.

"He said they used hand signals to communicate. Maybe military or too many cop shows," Catherine said.

"Go ask the other two if they noticed the same thing." She went to do his bidding.

Kono came back with her results. "The plate is the correct format, but it doesn't match any plate currently registered to a SWAT van."

"I still need to call Grover," Chin moaned.

"Ah, the burdens of being the boss. Tough luck, cuz."

"Let's head back to HQ. If I gotta make this call, I want to do it from the comfort of my desk chair," Chin stated dramatically.

The team pooled their information first, allowing Chin to procrastinate for a little longer. He left the other two to dig into the two crews that were on a call around the time of the robbery and garner any other information they could.

Chin made his self as comfortable as he could while he dialed the phone.

"Grover." A gruff voice barked.

"Lou, it's Chin Ho. I'm sure you've heard by now so I'm sure you can figure out why I'm calling."

"Yeah, I heard. It wasn't any of my men. I had two teams out and the rest were with me at the precinct. It has to be impostors."

"You have any idea how someone could get their hands on a SWAT vehicle?" Chin asked already knowing the answer.

"HPD had an old equipment auction last month. There were several uni's and a decommissioned SWAT truck but you knew that already," Grover retorted.

"We'll pull the records for who bought the truck," Chin said, thinking out loud.

"Don't need to. The truck didn't sell at auction. It was sent to the standard scrapyard," Grover informed him.

"Sorry about this, Lou," Chin apologized.

"You do what you have to do. I want those bastards caught. Sullying the reputations of good men." Grover grumbled.

"We'll catch them. I don't have to tell you to keep tabs on your team," Chin threw out.

"No, you don't," Grover replied trying not to sound offended.

Chin joined the two women at the tech table. "Anything new?"

"Thank God, SWAT isn't that big of a division. I've verified through uniforms on site that all at scene members were where they should be and the ones still at the station have been verified as well, so that leaves us with half to verify. I've pulled the lists of members and requested the personnel files for all forty-eight members," Catherine told him.

"I'm trying to get a hold of the auction house to get the buyer's records from the sale last month," Kono said.

"You can forget the auction. The truck was sent to the yard. You want to go on a field trip?" Chin asked.

"Shoots. Sounds like fun."

"Catherine, start getting alibis of the off duty SWAT. We'll help when we get back and hopefully by then we'll have the files," Chin instructed.

"Will do. Should I text Steve?" Catherine asked.

Chin shook his head. "Not yet. They're stuck and can't help us. It'll only raise Danny's blood pressure. I'll update him when they check in at the end of the day."

Kono fiddled with the radio and readjusted her seat twice before Chin said, "Spit it out, cuz. What's on your mind?"

"Do you think there's something wrong with Steve and Catherine? I can't put my finger on it, but they're a bit frosty with each other."

Chin sighed. This is so not the conversation he wants to have. "I think that it's none of our business."

"It's our business if it affects Five-0," Kono pointed out, undeterred.

"Maybe they're going through a rough patch. It's bound to happen with all the changes lately. It can't be easy going from having a 'thing' as Steve called it to living together then working together. They probably need time to adjust," Chin reasoned, hoping she'd drop the conversation.

"Maybe," Kono replied, unconvinced. "We saw Steve the other night with a woman in his truck."

Chin put his zen face in place. He wasn't about to give away Steve's secret. "Must be a friend. Steve, of all people, would never cheat. He's been lied to too many times by the people he cares about to start lying himself."

"You're right. It's, well, I wish things would go back to normal."

"Normal is overrated," Chin claimed.

The scrapyard was the main one HPD had been using for years. Any vehicle they couldn't sell at auction was sold to the yard to either be broken down for parts or compacted for scrap metal. The agreement was no vehicle could be resold. Seems like the agreement had been broken.

Chin pulled up in front of the office. "Let's go find out about our truck, kid."

The guy behind the counter was dressed in overalls and a dirty ball cap. "May I help you folks?"

"We're with Five-0. We'd like to speak with the manager," Chin said.

"You're lookin' at 'em. Name's Jim. What can I do for you?"

"Last month you received delivery on a used HPD SWAT truck. We'd like to know what happened to it," Kono said.

"Happened to it? Nothing happened to it. It's on blocks waiting to be crushed. Don't have much call for parts from an armored truck," Jim replied.

"You mean it hasn't been crushed yet?" Chin asked.

"Usually, we have them done within three days, but the crusher broke down. I'm still waiting on parts."

"Can you take us to the truck," Kono asked politely.

"Sure, but you if you get injured in the yard, that's all on you."

"We've got it covered," Chin assured the man.

"Follow me," he said, jumping off his stool. "Harry cover the front while I show these cops around," he yelled towards an office.

Jim led them through a veritable maze of stacked junkers and crushed cars. They turned what was like the millionth corner to find the SWAT truck sitting exactly where it should be. Chin climbed on the hood to read the VIN # to Kono.

"It checks out. That's our truck," Kono stated.

Chin jumped down. "Hey, do us a favor and yank the engine so that thing won't run."

Jim looked like his was going to argue but decided against it when he caught Chin's expression. "Yeah, we can do that. I got a part-timer who's got nothing to do with the crusher down."

Shaking hands with the manager, Chin thanked him for his time. Getting back in the car, Kono gave him a disgruntled look. "Well that was a dead end."

"Yep."

Steve called while they were en route to the palace. "Hey, Chin, what's new?"

"We caught a case," Chin told him filling in the details.

"Man, what I wouldn't give to helping you out," Steve whined.

"That bad?"

"I can't even begin to describe it. I've learned that I'll never play cards with Danny for real money. The man's a shark."

"Good to know. You guys gonna be done today?"

"It's not looking like it. Danny's on the stand now, but I have a feeling he'll be back again tomorrow morning."

"Shoots. That sucks," Kono said, joining the conversation.

"Tell me about. Keep me updated. I need the distraction," Steve pleaded.

"Will do, boss. Hang loose," Chin advised.

Steve hung up, leaned back in his chair and banged his head against the wall. Patience was not one of his virtues. He thought briefly about getting up and tying down the used car salesman to stop the guy's finger rapping, but beat down the urge. His next distraction was pacing when his phone buzzed. He looked down to find a multiple pictures text from Arianna.

_this is my classroom_ the title said

_this is the door to my classroom. chk out the name plaque _"Miss McGarrett" plainly shown

_this is the message the kids left for me during lunch _"Miss McG Rocks" in block letters filled the whiteboard.

_think they like me? hope court is better and u get done 2day. 3_

Steve grinned. _I think ur a hit. I'll call u 2nite. _

"Must be a good message," the other man in the room said.

Steve looked up, startled. "Um, yeah. It's my kid. She just started a teaching job and she sent me pictures of her classroom and stuff."

"You don't look old enough to have a kid that age."

"We had her young," Steve explained.

"I've got two of my own. The oldest is a high school freshman. Can't believe he's that old. I can't imagine having him old enough to be a teacher. It's an honorable profession," the man continued. "Bet you're proud of her."

"I am. She's a good kid," Steve gloated.

They hadn't received the personnel files yet so Kono helped Catherine with tracking down the off duty SWAT team members. Chin pulled a list of former team members from the last five years. By the end of the day, they were no closer to getting answers.

Steve pulled into the drive, surprised to see Arianna's car parked there. He was so mentally wrung out that he couldn't remember if they'd made plans. She was sitting on the porch, grading papers when he walked up. He deliberately stomped up the two steps to get her attention.

"Hey, sweetheart, did I forget that we'd made plans?" he asked going for the direct approach.

"No, you didn't," she replied, standing up to kiss his cheek. "I figured you'd be too tired to cook so I brought over some ahi Doug caught and some side dishes. All you need to do is reheat it a little. I also have some papers that I need you to read over and sign, for school and stuff."

"You gonna join me?" Steve requested, opening the front door.

"I've ate, but I'll reheat this for you if you want to grab a shower before you eat."

"That sounds like heaven. I'll take you up on it. You already know your way around the kitchen. I'll be down in ten." Steve took the stairs two at time, Arianna's visit giving him a bit of extra energy.

Steve tromped down to the dining room following the scent of food wafting in the air. Arianna had a place set and food evenly portioned out, a stack of papers set off to the side, out of reach of potentially spilled food. "This looks delicious," he told her sliding into a chair.

"Eh, it's not bad. I haven't cooked tuna in a long time. Okay, look, I've got to run. Those are the papers, read and sign when you can."

Steve picked up on her nervousness on the porch, but it was worse now. "Something you're not telling me?" he asked gently.

"No," was the short reply. He waited her out. "I don't like 'in case of' planning is all. That's what all the paperwork is."

Steve stood up and wrapped her in his arms, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. He pulled back enough for her to see his face. "If it's any consolation, I don't either."

She smiled shakily and nodded. "Some. I really do need to go, though."

"You have a good night and I'll talk to you tomorrow," Steve promised.

She waved away his attempt to show her out saying his food would get cold. Steve decided to take the papers with him tomorrow to court where he would assuredly have the time to read them thoroughly. The ahi was perfect.


	17. Chapter 17

Wednesday morning found the partners once again sitting in the waiting room. They'd run out of small take the day before so they were staring at the walls. Danny had been on the stand at the end of court the day before, but because of motions, delays, what have you's, he didn't get back to the stand until 10:30.

Steve pulled out the papers Arianna had left the night before, casually flipping through them. He would always be secretly embarrassed over his lack of attention to detail, it was a good seven pages in when it dawned on him what he held. Arianna's 401K papers, her financials from the inheritance, copies of all important papers and her last will and testament. Reading closely, Steve found that if his daughter should die without children, everything she owned was Steve's except for 5%, which she'd bequeathed to Joan, her cousin. Not wanting to show the other occupant in the room his tears, Steve made for the bathroom to collect himself. When he came back, he scrawled his name on every line indicated by a post-it flag. He then put in a call to his lawyer.

Back at the palace, the team kept hitting a brick walls. They had no leads and all of the SWAT team members they'd checked out so far had solid, airtight alibis. After a full morning of chasing their tails, Chin called for lunch.

"I'm gonna go cross eyed if I have to look over another list of relatives," Chin announced. "Let's call it good for a while. Start again after lunch."

"I agree," Kono said. "We either have the most honest SWAT team on the planet or I'm doing my job wrong."

"Let's hope it's the former," Catherine added.

"I'm thinking Kamekona's for lunch," Chin's phone interrupted his thought. "Lt. Kelly."

"Hey, Chin, Danny and I are finally done here. You want us to pick up lunch on our way in?" Steve's jovial voice answered.

"Nice timing, we were getting ready to take a break. Why don't you and Danny meet us at Kamekona's?"

"Even better idea. Could use some fresh air and sunshine after three days stuck inside. See you in twenty."

The three team members piled into Chin's Traverse, knowing they'd beat the partners to the shrimp truck so they planned on grabbing a table for all of them. Pulling into the parking lot, they were lucky enough to get a spot not too far away. They were making light conversation as they headed to stake a spot when Chin stopped dead in front of three motorbikes parked in one slot.

Kono immediately knew what had caught his attention. "See something you like, cuz?"

"Oh yeah. That Harley is a custom order. Mighty sweet ride," Chin said admiringly.

"Keep on dreaming, brah," she said.

"Don't I know it," Chin replied, giving the bike one last look.

Catherine had moved on, snagging the last table available, furthest away from the truck. She looked around, checking out the other diners while she waited for Chin and Kono. One group caught her attention, three women sitting at the table directly in front of her. Two of them appeared to be in their mid to late forties while the third was probably barely out of her teens. It wasn't the age disparity that aroused her curiosity though, it was the fact they were all using sign language. Catherine immediately thought about Steve's friend. She was distracted from her thoughts when Kono slid in beside her and Chin across from her, blocking her view of the table.

They didn't have to wait long before the rest of the team arrived. Steve and Danny were engrossed in one of their bickering matches as they walked up, completely oblivious to the world around them.

"I'm telling you, D, the minute you got done, the guy knew there wasn't a chance."

"Normally, I would agree that my testimony could be intimidating, but this time I need to be honest. The guy didn't even consider taking a plea until Kioki mentioned you were next on the stand. The guy looked like he was about to crap his pants when your name came up."

"Well, he did take a swing at me with a fence post. Maybe he thought I'd hold a grudge," Steve admitted.

"Nah. I think your reputation proceeds you," Danny stated.

"Hey, guys, take it the trial is over?" Catherine asked

"Yeah. The guy took a plea deal after Danny finished. Cut his losses," Steve said. "Have you ordered yet?"

"Just got here. What's everyone want? I'll brave the crowds and place our orders," Kono offered. "Come on Cath, give me a hand?"

Danny watched the two approach the ordering window and then let his gaze slide over the rest of the customers. His perusal faltered when he made it to a certain table. He did a double take and tried to come up with the best solution to this turn of events.

Steve, with his back to the table, couldn't see the occupants, but he caught Danny's staring. "See someone you know, partner?"

"Uh huh, I do. You do too," Danny answered, tipping his head forward slightly.

Steve rearranged his body so he could get a good look at who Danny was talking about but a group of people chose that moment to walk between the tables, obstructing his view.

At the other table, Arianna and her fellow teachers were talking about their plans for the rest of the day when one of her companions said, "Don't look know, young lady, but those guys at the next table are checking you out."

"What guys?" Arianna asked trying to sound disinterested.

"They came up and joined the table behind you a few minutes ago. The blonde has given you the once over a couple of times and I think the brunette is trying to. Might be able to make a connection," her friend said crudely.

"Don't listen to her. Those guys are too old. Besides I think they're with Five-0 and you really don't want to be dating a cop. Too much worry," the other woman quipped.

Not sure if she really wanted to, Arianna turned around as the group moved past the tables. Momentarily frozen with surprise, she watched her father watch her. Shaking off her stupor, she turned to her friends. "If you'll excuse me, I know those guys and I'd like to say hello."

Getting up, Arianna crossed the small space to be wrapped up in a hug by Steve. "This is a surprise. Aren't you suppose to be in school?"

"It's half day for students so teachers get a longer lunch. I thought you were in court?"

"Danny's testimony scared the guy into taking a plea bargain. We're grabbing lunch before heading back to the office."

"I'm glad we ran into each other. I'd asked you to join us, but we're about to head back to school," Arianna said, gesturing to her table mates.

"That's too bad. I'll call you later tonight," Steve said. Hugging her again, Steve signed "I love you." Arianna squeezed his waist and returned the sign.

Arianna joined her friends in cleaning up their garbage before they went to the parking lot. The three men at the table watched as the ladies approached the bikes Chin admired earlier. Steve was the only one not surprised as the ladies donned helmets, climbed on the bikes and roared away.

Chin opened his mouth to comment when two things happened; Catherine and Kono returned to the table with their food and Danny gave him a firm kick under the table. Chin shrugged, all zen like, and asked, "How much do I owe?"

Their three teammates brought Steve and Danny up to date on their current case. For the rest of the meal they brainstormed, tossing ideas back and forth, trying for anything. By the end of their meal all they had was proof they were all good detectives no matter what individual perspective they took. Back at the palace, the duties were redivided by five which made it easier but didn't help with getting results. A frustrated team left at five.

Steve invited Catherine over for dinner, promising to feed her something other than steak on the grill. Welcoming what seemed to be a move towards fixing the strain between them, she accepted. To her great surprise, Steve fixed stir-fry.

"Wow! This is really good," she exclaimed.

"Should I be hurt that you're stunned?"

"You have to admit that you don't exactly have the best track record with food that isn't grilled," she teased.

"True. I'd like to think I can still learn," he stated.

"Apparently you can, cause this is amazing," she said, stroking his ego. "Where you pick this recipe up."

Steve blushed. "I improvised."

Cath gaped, incredulous. "Really?"

"Uh, yeah," he answered around a mouthful.

"Huh."

They quickly cleaned up, then retired to the lanai with glasses of wine. Steve inhaled deeply, relishing the fresh air after being cooped up for three days. They'd been together long enough not to need small talk. Wine consumed, they drifted upstairs. Steve sent a quick text to Arianna while Catherine was in the bathroom.

_Sorry, lost track of time. will definitely call you tomorrow._

The reply came back so fast that Steve felt guilty for keeping her waiting. _its ok. i got wrapped up in grading papers and lost track of time too. have a good nite_

A six a.m. phone call on a Thursday was no one's idea of good wake-up call. Steve rolled out of bed, slapping his companion on thigh in the process. "Come on, Cath, we've got a dead body."

The pair rolled up to the crime scene to find Danny and Kono already there. "What we got?" Steve asked.

"We've got one dead body. Neighbor smelt the burnt grass then spotted the body as he was jogging past," Danny answered.

"Burnt grass?" Catherine repeated.

"Yeah. Can't smell it now so much with the breeze but it was pretty heavy when we first arrived," Danny continued.

"You want to explain that a little better, partner?" Steve requested.

"Uh, I think it's better if you see it for yourself," Danny replied, guiding them over to the lawn about forty feet away from the body to a collection of foot high letters burnt into the perfectly manicured grass.

Stepping back to take in the whole scene, Steve put the words together. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "It's definitely a message."

Catherine cocked her head, reading out loud, "'WHO DA BOSS NOW BITCHES!' What does that mean?"

"Well, if one takes the message seriously, one can infer that whoever wrote it is planning on filling the shoes of our victim," Danny answered.

"What do we know about the victim?" Steve asked, walking to the covered body.

"We're still waiting on confirmation but the house is registered to Ronald Davis."

"Ronald Davis? The guy that's on all the hot sheets for being the largest distributor of meth on the islands?" Steve asked.

"That would be the one," Danny confirmed.

"Narcotics has been on this guy for over a year," Steve stated.

"Well, somebody got to him first," Catherine said.

"We know anything else?" Steve inquired.

"Not much. Kono's speaking to the housekeeper, the only other person that lives in house. Duke's getting the jogger's statement and uni's are canvassing the neighborhood."

"Do we have a guess at cause of death?" Catherine asked, interrupting.

"No visible marks on the body and Max isn't here yet. With the rather large note and the staging of the body it's assuredly a homicide," Danny proceeded.

"Okay, I bite. Staging?" Steve said.

Danny lifted the tarp to reveal their victim in a fetal position, sucking his thumb and naked. Steve knelt down to look closer at the man's face. "Why don't we have a positive ID.? You said there was a housekeeper."

"Yeah, I did. Kono's trying to convince her to come out to verify it's Davis but she's refusing, saying something about it being bad luck to see a dead body or some such," Danny informed him.

"The jogger didn't recognized him?" Catherine threw in.

"Couldn't get through the gate. Saw the body from the road and called HPD." Danny noticed Chin pulling in ahead of the M.E. "Chin and Max are here."

Kono, Chin and Duke approached the other three at the same time. Steve looked at Duke first. "The jogger any help?"

"Not much. He runs by this house every morning around 5:30 a.m. This morning he'd stopped to retie his shoe when he smelled the burnt grass. He walked up to the bars of the fence to get a closer look and noticed the body on the lawn. Called 911 immediately," Duke relayed.

"He know the guy who lives here?" Danny asked the older detective.

"Never met the guy. Says he's lived three blocks from here and has only seen different cars in the drive every once in a while," Duke conveyed.

"Kono, what you got?" Steve asked.

"Housekeeper is a live in. Says Mr. Davis left the house last night around 7:00 and she hasn't seen him since. She rang him for breakfast and when he didn't answer, she checked his room to find the bed hadn't been slept in."

"Breakfast? The guy eat at the crack of dawn? It's not even 7 a.m. yet," Chin said.

Kono gave him a 'what can I say' look. "Seems the guy eats everyday at 6:15 a.m. on the dot."

"Alright, we've got two active cases. Cath, you and Kono head to the palace and keep working the armored car. Danny, Chin and I'll take this one," Steve declared.

"On it, boss," Kono smarted. The guys watched as the women went to Kono's car.

"Let's go see if Max has anything yet," Steve directed.

The medical examiner was putting his equipment away as the trio approached. "Good morning, gentlemen."

"Morning, Max," they chorused.

"I'll preempt your standard questions by saying liver temp indicates T.O.D. as 2:00 a.m. There is no apparent cause of death though there is a small contusion on the right hip. Finger print scan came back to a Ronald Davis. I need to get him back to the lab to give you more answers. Oh, also, I don't believe this is the crime scene," Max informed them in his typical pedantic manner.

"Why don't you think this is the scene of the crime?" Chin inquired.

Max glanced at the three while pointing to the surrounding ground. "The grass immediately around the body and underneath it is damp as if from a sprinkler system, yet the only moisture on the body is where it came in contact with the ground."

All three cops surveyed the area, dumbstruck. They hadn't noticed. Danny stated the obvious. "If the sprinklers ran this morning, then how do we still have the smell of burnt grass?"

Steve motioned to the closest CSU member. "Make sure someone checks the sprinkler heads around the burnt message."

"Yes, sir," she acknowledge as she motioned for another to join her in the examination.

"Chin, see if you can get the security tapes and access logs. Danny and I'll meet you back at HQ."

Danny followed Steve to the palace, parking next to the man's truck. Steve took one look at his partner and knew the Jersey native had something he needed to say so Steve gave him the opening. "What's running through your head, Danno?"

Danny ran his hand over his chin and exhaled. "It's not my place.."

"Since when has that ever stopped you."

"As I was saying, it's not my place, but don't you think yesterday was a close call?"

Steve frowned, not following the other man's logic.

"At Kamekona's. Arianna," Danny expounded.

"Oh. Yeah, it was," Steve replied.

"She did come up to us though. Maybe that means she's ready to meet everyone," Danny reasoned.

"I don't think so. She only came up to us cause Chin know too."

"Chin knows? What happened that he found out?" Danny utter, dazed.

"The hospital called Arianna and she panicked when they erroneously told her I'd checked out AMA. She came to the office to read me the riot act."

"Bet that was spectacular. You need to talk to her, buddy. You're gonna get caught and it won't be pretty," Danny advised.

"I know, Danny, but I don't want to rush her. She pulled away last time," Steve whined.

"You've met her friends," Danny stated.

"Yeah, but she introduced me as a friend of her mother's, not as her dad."

"Maybe you offer the same thing. Say she's the daughter of an old friend. Neither of you are technically lying, just withholding all the facts," Danny pointed out.

"I'll think about it," Steve said. "Now we've got a case to work."

Catherine and Kono were in their offices on the phones, so the partners had the war room to themselves. They immediately started digging into Davis' past and the astonishingly thin files HPD Narcotics had on the man. Working side beside, they came up with profile of their victim that spoke volumes.

Chin arrived with a USB drive in hand. "I've got the video."

Pushing the current information to a side screen, Steve said, "Pull it up."

Chin loaded the files for them to study. "This first file is the security access."

"We know Davis left around 7:00 p.m. so let's look at everything after that," Danny said.

Chin efficiently scrolled to the appropriate time frame. "Okay, this is Davis leaving and here's the housekeepers code, setting the alarms on the doors and gate at 10:00 p.m. Here's Davis' code again at 11:00 p.m. through the gate, but not at any doors. There's no other activity since that time."

"So we've got him entering the estate grounds, but not his house. Max said the TOD was 2:00 a.m. and he wasn't killed on site. What the hell?" Danny said.

"Let's see what the video tells us," Chin said in lieu of an answer.

They started the playback five minutes before Davis left the grounds. The guy came out the house under the cover of the portico and climbed into the driver's seat of his Lexus. He pulled the car to the edge of the gates, where he reached for the visor, pressing a button on a remote hooked there. The gates slid open, he pulled through and they closed behind him.

Chin fast forwarded to the next entry time. They watched as a figure dressed all in camouflage opened the gate, spent several minutes at the side of the open gate and then a serpentine path to where the message would eventually be. The person marked out a large square with wire flags then pulled out an entrenching tool from his backpack. He proceeded to methodically cap off every sprinkler head within the perimeter. When he was done, he pulled the flag, put everything back into his bag and followed the same path out of the gate. The gate closed and he was gone.

"Chin, go back. Can we see what that guy did at the gate?" Steve asked.

Doing as instructed, Chin soon had the tape playing again. "This is the only view we have of the gate."

"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Steve asked.

"If you're thinking that he's tampering with the locking mechanism on the gate, then yes," Danny snarked.

"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Steve affirmed. "Did CSU check the gate?'

Chin already had the crime lab's video chat keyed in. Charlie Fong's smiling face appeared on the screen. "Hello, guys. I don't have much for you yet."

"We figured that, Charlie. We just wanted to make sure that someone had checked the gate," Chin stated.

"Hang on a sec." Charlie disappeared from view for a couple of minutes. When he returned, his face clearly said he had some information. "The gate was checked. They found some type of rubberized polymer in the locking mechanism. We're running it through analysis now."

"Thanks, Charlie. You'll let us know when you get more?" Chin said.

"As always," Charlie replied, ending the call.

Danny's grumbling stomach halted anyone's next words.

"Miss breakfast, Danno?" Steve ribbed. He would've continued, but the sounds his stomach emitted were louder than his friends.

"Yes and apparently so did you. How bout we order in some breakfast before we analyze any more. I'll bet the women are hungry too," Danny replied. Chin's stomach spoke for itself. "All right, breakfast for five coming up," Danny laughed whipping out his phone.

Danny not only order breakfast, tea and coffee, he called downstairs to give security a heads up. The last time the team had forgot, their food was stone cold before it made it upstairs.

As soon as Danny was off the phone, Chin cued the rest of the security tape. The men watched the sprinklers come on at 2:30 a.m. and shut off at 3:00 a.m. then at exactly 3:10 a dark mini van pulled up to the gate. Two men got out, opened the back and pulled a very naked Davis out. They carried him to the spot where the body was found. While one man posed the scene, the other walked over to the area where the sprinklers had been disabled. Pulling out a portable blow torch, he burnt the message, gathered the flags from the first visitor and joined the other man. The two seem to confer for a moment then went back to the van. One man spent some time at the gate again before joining his cohort. They pulled into the street and disappeared into the dark. The whole process took twenty-seven minutes.

"Chin, send it to the lab. Maybe they can get something," Steve said. "We need to shake down all know associates. Maybe one turned on Davis."

"Yeah, and maybe we've got a new wanna be," Chin added.

Seeing the delivery guy, Steve smiled. "Food's here. We'll eat and get started."

Catherine and Kono joined the guys in the conference room, both as hungry as Danny predicted.

Kono grabbed fruit and a roll, plopping down in a chair. "We talkin' bout work while we eat or making chit chat?"

"Depends on if you need to vent," Danny replied for everyone.

"I'm getting no where with my list. I tell you, I don't think that these guys are associated with SWAT in any way. Their impostors."

"I'm with Kono," Catherine added. "I'm getting nothing. Reports from the scene came back clean. No prints. No foreign fibers. Knife was a military issue K-bar."

Talking around a mouthful of oatmeal, Steve declared, "Since we're at a dead end, I'm going to have you two help with the Davis case. We'll take turns working the lists as time allows and reassess when we get new info on the armored car."

Danny tossed a balled up napkin at him. "What, were you raised in a barn? Chew with your mouth closed. No one likes to take orders from a man who resembles a cow chewing its cud."

Steve swallowed and laughed. "That's a new one. Been saving it up?"

"The opportunity didn't present itself until now," Danny scoffed. Everyone laughed at their boss's expense. "Hey, talking about opportunity, we need to get everyone together for a barbecue before Catherine heads off for her two weeks. When is that exactly, by the way?"

"I leave Monday morning," Catherine answered. "I think a barbecue sounds like a great idea."

"We can have it Sunday night at my place," Steve stated, warming to the idea. "Everyone bring something and I'll supply the meat. We can even invite Kamekona, Max and Sabrina."

Danny choked, "You're offering to furnish the protein and inviting extra people? What the hell happened to you? You hit your head or something?"

"It's the least I can do," Steve retorted.

"Will wonders never cease? Offering to pay twice in one month. McGarrett you're getting soft," Danny declared, analyzing his friend with a amazed gaze.

Steve chose to ignore his partner. "All right, Chin, why don't you speak to your C.I.'s, see if there's an up and comer in the meth business who might have what it takes to go after Davis. Take.." he looked between the two women trying to decided who'd be the best fit.

Catherine gave him an out. "Kono can go. I'll stay here, wait for the lab results and keep working on the SWAT lists."

"Good," Steve said obviously relieved. "Danny and I'll work on Davis' know associates. See if we can shake something loose. Finish up here and let's get on it. Cath, can I see you for a sec in my office?"

Closing the door behind them, he motioned for Catherine to take a seat in one of his side chairs while he sat behind the desk to create an air of formality.

"What's up?" Catherine asked trying to relieve some of the tension.

"Look, I know we've never really discussed your role with the team. We've jumped from case to case and well…." Steve started hesitantly.

"Steve you don't have to say any more. I know that with Kono back, I'm the extra wheel. You want me to quit?"

Steve's expression was one of appall. "What?!" Of course not, I want you to have a more defined role where your talents are used to the best."

"Oh," Catherine said, releasing some anxiety.

"Your speciality is intelligence and information gathering, not fieldwork. It's that I don't want you in the field, but it's something we should ease you into," Steve explained.

"Hey, Steve. I'm okay with that. I just want to be where I can be the most useful. If, for the most part, it's in the office then so be it," Catherine said.

"So we're good here?" Steve asked to confirm.

"Yeah, we're good," she affirmed.

Danny knocked on the door, opening it without waiting for an acknowledgement. "Hey, we've got a location for Davis' second in command. You ready?"

"Uh, yeah. I'll be right there," Steve answered. Danny nodded and went to grab his gear.

"You sure we're good?" Steve asked one more time.

"Of course. Now go chase the bad guys," Cath replied, giving him a hug.

Danny waited till they were in the car before attacking. "Everything good?"

Steve shot him a confused looked. "Yeah. Things are good. Why wouldn't they be?"

"Your little talk with Catherine. Just wondering if things are okay."

"Yeah, it's good. When I asked her to join the team, I didn't exactly think it through completely. We were ironing out some of the details is all," Steve said, shifting in his seat.

"Those details being what exactly?" Danny pressed.

Steve sighed, knowing Danny was going to drop this anytime soon. "I wanted her to know that I'm not deliberately leaving her in the office all the time. It's where her skills are most needed."

Danny pulled his jaw in like he always did when he was taking a minute to consider the situation. "And she took that okay?"

"Of course she did. Catherine's a professional, Danny."

"Yes, she is, but even professionals have feelings, Steven."

"I literally have no idea where you are going with this," Steve declared in frustration.

"I'm just saying that everyone wants to feel needed, is all," Danny explained.

Still not really understanding what his partner was trying to say, Steve changed the topic. "Who are we going to see?"

"We are going to see Marc E. Marque," Danny replied, spelling out the last name. "It's pronounced 'mark'."

Steve took his eyes off the road to stare at the man in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me. We're going to see Marc E. Marque?"

"What can I say. Someone likes Mark Wahlberg just a little too much," Danny stated.

"Well, this should be interesting," Steve said.

Marc E. Marque's home wasn't as large as his boss's, but what it didn't have in size, it made up for by being ostentatious.

"This place looks like the guy has watched every drug king B movie ever made. Doesn't he realized that less is more?" Danny asked as they approached the double front door adorned with a gold plated door knocker.

Taking in the three feet high marble lion sculptures bracketing the door, Steve mutter, "Doesn't look like it." He was about to knock again when the door swung inwards to reveal an elderly gentleman dressed in a butler's outfit.

"May I help you," the man asked, raising his nose in the air.

"I'm Commander McGarrett. This is Detective Williams. We would like to speak with Mr. Marque."

"Mr. Marque is in morning and has asked not to be disturbed," he informed them.

"That's why we are here. We'd like to speak to him about Mr. Davis," Danny said.

"I'll see if he is available. Wait here," the man commanded, shutting the door in their faces.

"This is going great so far, don't you think," Danny said. Steve wearing his _Constipation face_, didn't reply.

The door opened again but by a different man, most likely a body guard by the heat he was packing. "Mr. Marque will entertain you in the library. Please follow me."

The men followed as directed, taking in the over the top decor. "I'm pretty sure the door hinges cost more than my first car," Danny muttered.

"Your's and mine too, partner," Steve whispered back.

They were shown into a room that would've made most librarians weep. The three walls of floor to ceiling shelves were filled to capacity. Every shelf and book were tagged a label, which on closer inspection would reveal dewey decimal numbers. There was an old fashion card file in the corner with a state of the art computer sitting on top of it. The sole occupant of the room lounged on a opulent reproduction Louis XIV divan. He was not what either of the two cops expected.

"Gentlemen, please come in," Marque said, standing to greet his guests.

The man wore all black, from his silk dress shirt and tie, to his summer weight trousers and loafers. At his full height, he barely reached Danny's shoulder. He shook their hands, waved them to the side chairs and resumed his seat on the divan. "What can I do for Hawaii's finest?"

"Mr. Marque, were here about your business associate, Ronald Davis," Danny stated, dispensing with the niceties.

"You want to know if I'm the one that caused Ronald's untimely demise," Marque stated calmly.

"We would like your help in catching his killer," Steve clarified.

"In our business, gentlemen, we tend to make enemies. Ronald was no exception."

"And what business would that be, Mr. Marque?" Danny asked.

"Why the import and export business of course."

"Of course. Has there been any one lately that stands out as a potential suspect?" Steve asked.

"None that I know of recently. Not of the usual crowd anyway," Marque replied.

"How about the unusual crowd?" Danny prodded.

"Well, we have had some recent problems with a young upstart trying to make a name for himself," Marque admitted.

"Does this young upstart have a name?" Danny asked thinking this whole interrogation was like pulling teeth.

"Pakui, Paakaala, or some such," came the short reply.

"You don't seem too concerned over this guy," Steve pointed out.

"My dear Commander, if I worried about every punk that threatened my business, I'd live in a panic room," Marque snorted.

"Well this punk might have got to your partner," Steve reminded him.

"Ronald pooh poohed body guards. I however embrace the idea. I do not leave home without one."

Steve indicated with a tip of his towards the door that they should make their exit. "We appreciate your time, Mr. Marque. Here's my card. Please call us if you think of anything that will aide in our investigation."

"I'll be sure to do that, Commander. Don't misread my cavalier attitude, gentlemen. I will do anything to ensure Ronald's killer receives justice," Marque proclaimed, deadly serious. "Sam will show you out."

The partners couldn't get out of the house fast enough. As they settled in to the seats, Steve caught Danny lifting his shirt collar to his nose and sniffing it. "You got a problem there, partner?"

"Nah, just trying to figure out how much of that guy's cologne absorbed into my shirt is all."

"Yeah, it was a bit overwhelming," Steve stated.

"Overwhelming? The guy was odiferous, Steven. He must bathe in the stuff."

"Point. Stench or not, I don't think he's our guy though."

"I don't either. Hey, I was thinking," Danny said changing the topic.

"Oh this outta be good," Steve snarked.

"Shut up you. I have good ideas. Anyway, I was thinking you should get Arianna to come to the barbecue. You can introduce her like she did you. Give her a chance to get use to everyone without having the pressure of explaining any more."

"You know, you might be right," Steve conceded. "We did all right with her friend's."

"I'm gonna mark this day down for posterity," Danny smirked.

"Whatever. Should we head for Davis' offices? Speak to the employees?" Steve suggested.

The 'offices' were a bust. They found a middle aged woman sitting at the reception area of a completely empty building. She'd got the job by answering an online ad, two years ago. On her first day, she'd met a very short man named Marque, told she was perfect for the position, shown how to work the phone and given a list of strict responses to whatever was said by the caller. Her paycheck beat her to the office every other Friday. She loved her job. She caught up on her reading and taught herself how to knit. She'd made over three hundred pairs of booties and caps for newborns in the NICU units of two hospitals. "What was she going to do now? Was she unemployed? Did the Marque guy still need her?" Neither cop had answers for her.

Across town, Chin and Kono were having better luck. They had a name. Each team called in, agreeing to meet up at the palace.

By the time they'd assembled, they had the results from the lab. Catherine quickly filled them in. "The lab found nothing other than what we knew from this morning except the polymer found in the gate lock was a commercial product. Everyone knows it as Silly Putty."

"Well, we faired better," Chin said flicking a picture onto the screens. "Let me give you, Jakob Pa'akaula. The wireless says he's taken a great interest in the meth distribution on the islands lately. Up to this point, he's been a small time dealer, working for whoever'll give him a job."

"So we're thinking this guy took out Davis to take over the bigger operations?" Danny semi-asked.

"That's the rumors," Kono confirmed.

"Any ideas on where we find this guy?" Steve asked.

"That's the kicker. No one's seen or heard anything about him for about a week," Chin answered. "He residence is listed in Mililani, but when Kono and I stopped by, the place was deserted."

"Let's get a BOLO out, that he's wanted for questioning. Anybody got anything else?" Steve queried.

"I might have something for you, Commander," Max's voice resounded through the room. It must say something that none of the team members jumped at the unexpected video call.

"What you got, Max?" Steve asked.

"Cause of death," Max answered.

Everyone waited for Max to continued. When he didn't, Danny pushed. "Would you care to enlighten us, maybe share with the class."

"Technically speaking, Mr. Davis died from a cerebral hemorrhage," Max replied.

"So he was hit on the head?" Catherine guessed.

"No, he was not. There were no signs of blunt force trauma," Max said.

"If he wasn't struck, Max, what caused the hemorrhage?" Steve ventured, trying not to let his frustration show.

"He was given an overdose of methamphetamine," Max stated.

"So our killer took Davis out with his own product," Kono stated.

"I'm not certain of that," Max said. "There were enough traces left in the body to send to the Charlie. He might be able determine the origin of the drug."

"Right, cause every manufacture has a unique chemical mix. If HPD has this one on file, we'll be able to trace it back," Kono said.

"Precisely. I also found several carpet fibers on the body. I've sent those to the lab as well," Max continued.

"Thanks, Max," Steve said.

"You're entirely welcome, Commander." The screen went black.

"Don't you get the feeling he gets a perverse joy out of parcelling out information like that," Danny said to the room at large. Every head bobbed. "So our only potential suspect is in the wind. This is starting to become a very tiresome trend."

"Yes it is. Yes it is," Steve agreed. "Cath, any progress on the armored truck heist?"

"No, nothing new," she responded.

"Great, two cases and nothing," Steve fumed.

"We've got word on the street for Pa'akaula. Hopefully that'll kick up something," Chin stated, trying to head off a McGarrett storm.

"Right. Let's keep digging," Steve ordered, stomping off to his office. The others watched long enough to get glared at after he sat down then scurried for their own offices.

Steve took a break some time late afternoon to call Arianna. He wasn't sure what time school got out, but he could always leave a message.

He got her voicemail. "Hey, it's Steve. Wanted to check in. See if your day is going any better than mine. I also want to invite you over for a barbecue at my house Sunday night. Yes, the team will be there, plus a few others, but I figure I can introduce you as a daughter of an old friend. Danny says it'll take some of the pressure off in meeting everyone. Anyway, think about it. Call me when you get time. Love you."

His next break came when Chin called him to the tech table. "Lab got some stuff for us. The fibers Max pulled are found in early 2000's Dodge Grand Caravans. From the video, Charlie was able to match the body style to Caravans manufactured between 2001 and 2007. Which according to the DMV there are thirty-nine on the island, twelve of them black. Already got alerts out."

Despite their best efforts, they got nowhere with either of their cases over the next few days and they were all more than ready to let loose and hang out at Steve's. Though he'd spoke with her every day, Arianna waited until Sunday afternoon to tell Steve she'd join them. He was a bundle of nerves, waiting for her to arrive.

The lanai and backyard were brimming with people. Kono brought Adam and Chin convince Leilani to come. Danny, Grace, Kamekona, Max, Sabrina and Catherine rounded out the list of those present. The only person they were waiting for was Arianna.

Steve paced nervously between the backyard and the front door, checking his phone constantly. Catherine having given up on getting him to stop, joined the others. Steve opened the door when he heard Arianna pull up. That bike of her's had a unique sound.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, greeting him. "The neighbors dog got loose and I stayed around to help catch the little rat."

Steve gave her a big hug. "No worries, I'm just glad you made it. Are you ready for this?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she said, her voice shaking. "Did you give them any advanced notice?"

"I told them already about the daughter of a friend and I did tell them you are deaf. I hope that's okay?" Steve replied, suddenly worried that he'd said too much.

"It's good. Let's get this over with," she said.

At the lanai door, Arianna halted, drawing in a deep breath. Steve wrapped his arm around her shoulders and urged her outside. The conversations halted as the two appeared. Grace started to run to say hello but aborted the move, remembering her father's warning to pretend she was meeting Arianna for the first time. As she's said before, she's no rat. She'll keep Uncle Steve's secret.

Steve quickly made all the introductions, saving Catherine, Danny and Grace for last. The three were standing together with Grace telling about her latest cheerleading adventure.

"Arianna, this is Catherine, Danny and his daughter Grace. Catherine is my girlfriend and Danny is my work partner."

"It's very nice to meet you," Catherine said, making sure she was facing the younger woman.

"It's nice to me you too," Arianna responded. "And you as well," she added, speaking to Danny and Grace.

Both of them replied by signing. "Wow, look at you, Danny. Rocking the sign language and you too Grace," Kono commented.

"Danno's known sign for a long time and he's teaching me. I'm excited I've now have someone else to practice with," Grace said.

"Monkey, it might be nice if you ask if Arianna will help you," Danny admonished.

"I'd be delighted to help you with your signing, Grace," Arianna said.

"Was that the sound of a motorbike I heard when you arrived," Chin asked as he and Leilani walked up to the group. Danny quickly translated when he realized Arianna hadn't seen Chin.

"My apologies. I didn't think…." Chin uncharacteristically stammered, facing her now.

"Shoots. People forget all the time. Yes it was, by the way. Was that a Bonneville Triumph I saw parked out there?" Arianna asked to erase the awkwardness.

Steve watched as his daughter and his friend made their way around the house together. "Apparently, motorbike is a universal language," he laughingly said to the rest of the group.

"Apparently. I say we draw straws to find out who has to go tear them away when the food is ready," Leilani suggested.

"I'll do it," Grace volunteered, not really understanding why the adults were so silly.

"We have our volunteer then," Catherine said. "Come on, Grace, you can help me bring out the veggies while Uncle Steve and your dad get the meat on the grill."

As predicted, the food was ready and the two motorbike enthusiasts had yet to reappear. At one point the crowd was sure they'd heard both bikes start up. Grace dutifully kept her promise by going out, grabbing the two by their hands and dragging them back to the party.

Danny intended to be the last one to take a plate, but with Arianna around, he was having a hard time with that intention. She kept hanging back, waving others in front of her, even making the excuse that she forgot to wash her hands. Danny put two and two together came up with the answer and cornered her in the hallway. "Steve didn't tell you it was a pot luck did he? Now you're embarrassed to get any food because you didn't bring something to share. Am I right?" He'd kept the rest of his assumptions to himself for now.

Like her father's, Arianna's ears turned five shades before settling on a nice crimson when she was embarrassed. She managed a small shake of her head to tell him he was indeed correct.

"Your dad is a schmuck. Come on. We're getting some food. My treat as your dad owes me many times over for all the beer I've bought him," Danny firmly proclaimed.

Danny led her to the line, handed her two plates and started piling food on both. She could barely hold them both steady when they got to the grill for meat. Danny took one of the plates and merely raised his eyebrow, daring Steve to comment on the amount of food on both plates. A burger and a brat got added to both plates without comment from the cook. Danny guided Arianna over to sit next to Grace, Kono and Adam. Once they were both ensconced, he stole a pickle from her plate, saluted her with it and took a big bite.

Steve watched the scene play out at the table. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but he was glad to see the tension leave his daughter's shoulders as she sat and gossiped with her table mates. He made a mental note to talk with Danny later.

"You worried about nothing," Catherine whispered in his ear from behind him.

Frowning, he swiveled to face her. "I don't know what you mean."

"Arianna. She's getting along with everyone," Catherine said.

Though she couldn't read the storm cloud of emotions that passed through Steve's eyes, Catherine recognized that she'd said the right thing. "You may even have some competition with Chin and Danny."

"You need another burger?" Steve asked, changing the topic. When she declined, Steve excused himself under the guise of grabbing more napkins. In reality, he needed to get control of his emotions, more specifically the jealousy and insecurity that reared up at Catherine's words. Logically, he knew they were misplaced, but his heart wasn't using logic.

Steve came back to robust laughter and a site that made his heart swell with pride. All of his guests were gathered around Arianna except Grace who was sitting on his daughter's lap. The two girls were teaching what looked like basic signs to the group. What was causing the merriment was Max's utter lack of understanding. For a man who some called a savant, he couldn't seem to conquer even the simplest hand configuration. When he finally got the sign for 'I love you' a chorus of cheers congratulated him. It was so loud, Steve was afraid his neighbors would call them in for disturbing the peace.

Arianna looked up at that moment, catching his eye. The utter joy on her face took his breath away. He couldn't imagine his life without her in it. Her expression also told him she was reading him like a book. Excusing herself she stood up to walk over and envelop him in a hug. Pulling back to look him in the eye she said, "You look like you needed that."

The party wrapped up early because Catherine needed a good night's rest before reserve training and the others all had work in the morning. Danny sent Grace to the car, trying to catch a moment alone with Steve. Unfortunately, Cath unknowingly conspired against him, hanging in the background. He leaned in to his partner and whispered, "We need to talk." Pulling back he called out, "Night Catherine, have fun on your sailor duties."

"Danny need something?" she asked, having seen the exchange.

"Um, no. He was reminding me to give you a proper send off," Steve answered.

"Oh. What does he consider a proper send off?" she teased, eyes sparkling.

"I don't know what he had in mind, but I have some ideas of my own," Steve growled, picking her up in his arms and wrangling her up the stairs.


	18. Chapter 18

Steve forsook his morning swim in favor of helping Catherine finish getting ready. Loading her gear into the trunk of her Corvette he watched her tuck her hair under her cover. "You doing okay being back in the Navy?"

"Yeah, I am. I didn't realize how much like the discipline and routine until I didn't have it anymore," she said.

Wrapping his arms around her, pulling her in close he whispered, "Don't like it too much, okay? I like having you on land," before kissing her.

"I promise. I like being on land," she whispered back, relaxing in his embrace. "You take care of yourself. Don't do anything too crazy while I'm gone."

"Me?! I'm offended, Rollins. I would never do anything crazy," Steve bluffed.

"I've already talked to Danny," she baited.

Steve pretended to look hurt. "Just for that, I'm going to plan a romantic dinner for when you get back."

Laughing, Catherine got in the car. "You wouldn't any way."

Steve leaned over the open window. "I promise."

Steve arrived at HQ to find Chin buried in paperwork looking for any leads on their two cases and Kono intently studying a screen on the tech table. Danny was nowhere in sight. Looking at his watch, it surprised him his partner was late. "Kono, you seen Danny?"

"He called about a half hour ago, has a flat but he should be in before long," she answered clearly distracted.

"You on to something?" Steve asked, moving to stand so he could see what she was looking at on the screen.

"I pulled up the video footage of Davis' scene. I know you guys watched it, but I thought a fresh set of eyes might help. I think I found something."

"Throw it up on the screens. Show me what you see," Steve instructed.

"Watch the van's mirrors as it pulls away," Kono told him, slowing down the tape. "Right here as it turns to leave."

"There's a reflection in the mirror," Steve stated. "How'd we miss that the first time?"

"It's brief. I missed it the first two times as well," Kono admitted.

"Can we enhance it? See who or what it is?" Steve asked.

"I'll get right on it."

"Good work, Kono. What's Chin working on?"

"He took Catherine's list for the armored car job. She only had a couple left."

Danny sashayed through the door, capturing their attention. "What, all you people do is stand around when I'm not here?"

"Well, Danno, since the rest of us were here on time, we're taking a well deserved break. Why do you look like something the cat dragged in?" Steve razzed.

"Don't even go there! This, this," he said waving at this current state of dress, "is all your fault."

"My fault? How am I responsible for grease stains and well, frankly I don't want to know what the rest of that is?" Steve asked, defending himself.

"Because, Steven, you are the one who insists on pretending the trunk of my car is an emergency stash in the event of an apocalypse," Danny retorted, punctuating his sentence with a finger poke to his friend's chest.

"I like to be prepare in the event of any emergency," Steve countered.

"Oh, I fully appreciate your Boy Scout tendencies. However, the one emergency you didn't really prepare for was a Flat Tire," Danny decreed, caps evident. "It took me twenty minutes to empty all of your preparedness stuff to get to the spare tire and when I did reach said tire, I found that the jack that should have been nestled in with it was not there."

"That's because the jack was crap I replaced it with a small hydraulic jack," Steve pointed out.

"Yes, yes you did. What you failed to do was tell me you'd made such a switch. I spent another ten minutes going back through everything I'd empty out to find this new fancy jack. In the meantime, I managed to slip on the wet pavement, because it would have to be raining while I'm doing this, and I landed on my ass on top of a pile of catsup packets and a fast food bag some idiot graciously threw out on the side of the road. Now, I'm going to make use of the spare set of clothing I've taken to keeping around since meeting you and change into them. Oh, the emergency blanket needs washing now. I put it in the back of your truck."

Steve, Kono and Chin (who'd join them mid-rant) were smart enough not to start snickering until after the door closed behind their teammate.

"I'll get him a bag to put his dirty clothes in," Kono said.

"I'll call to have some malasadas delivered from the kiosk downstairs," Chin said.

"I'll get a cup of coffee ready," Steve added.

Clean and dry, a much calmer Danny returned to the offices. "I have a greatest team!" he shouted when he saw the presents. Quickly shoving his clothes into the bag, he grabbed the coffee, taking a warming sip as he sank into his chair.

Steve followed partner, taking over Danny's couch, letting the other man get at least a third of his sweet treat down before bringing up the previous day's cryptic statement. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Danny sipped at his coffee, carefully formulating his reply. "Have you noticed any differences in Arianna lately?"

Steve jerked his head back in surprise. "Well, that's not what I expected. No, I can't say that I have, but we haven't had a lot of time together lately. Why?"

"Yesterday, with the food. You're an ass by the way for not telling her about the potluck. Anyway, she picked at the food, taking little bites. Hardly even touching it."

"Maybe she wasn't all that hungry," Steve suggested.

"I could hear her stomach growling. Did you notice her dress?" Seeing the dumbfounded look on Steve's face, Danny continue, "It looked loose and baggy. The first couple of times I saw her, her clothes fit, rather well."

"Danny, where are you going with this?" Steve asked, truly perplexed.

"Steve, I think you should talk to her. I think Arianna might be sick," Danny said.

"Sick, really, Danny?!"

"Grace said Arianna's hands were shaking slightly when they were teaching Max how to sign. Just think about it for a minute, Steve," Danny implored.

Danny watched the expressions shift across Steve's face. He knew the exact moment Steve put the whole puzzle together, "I'll call her today."

"Good. We getting anywhere with the cases?"

Steve filled Danny in on Kono's find then headed to his own office to do his part in finding them a lead and to make a phone call. "Hi, kamali'i wahine, I was hoping to catch you before classes, but I didn't realize the time. I have something I want to ask you about. Give me a call when you get a break."

It was about lunch time when Kono finally produce a useable print of their mirror reflection. It turned out to be a face. She was running it through every accessible database. She passed this all on to Steve as he was getting ready to head out to his monthly lunch/update meeting with the governor. "Keep on it," is all he said.

Lunch was being served when Arianna called him back. He let it go to voicemail. The minute he got back to his truck, he pulled it up. "Hi. Just returning your call. Sorry I missed you again. I'm done at four. I'll try back then."

He made it back in time to join his team on raid. They'd got a hit on there face from the mainland: Brian Tong, originally from San Francisco moved to Hawaii two months ago, address in Waipahu. They got to the address and found their suspect so strung out that Grace could've taken him, blindfolded. Steve and Chin debated between calling an ambulance or HPD to cart the man off. They decided on both if they wanted any chance of interrogating the guy.

"Detox is going to suck for him," Danny stated. They all nodded in agreement.

After making the hospital and uniform detail arrangements for their prisoner, Steve called it a day, sending everyone home. He received no arguments. It was after four when Steve pulled in the drive. He wanted to get swim in today, but he wanted to wait to talk to Arianna even more. His phone rang while he was kicking off his boots.

"McGarrett."

"Don't you ever look at look at the caller id," Arianna chided.

Steve thought for a second. "Not usually, no," he answered honestly.

"I'll remember that," Arianna giggled.

"Are you planning something, young lady?" Steve asked.

"Not at this moment but don't rule it out for the future. What's up? You said you wanted to talk about."

"I do. I thought maybe we could grab a bite and talk," Steve said.

"Why are you always trying to feed me?" she asked.

"Not sure. Seems that's the only time we can meet. So how 'bout it?"

"Well, I've got plans tonight and tomorrow is parent/teacher conference. How's Wednesday sound?" she offered.

"If that's the best you can do I guess I'll have to take it," Steve pouted.

"Don't pout. It's unbecoming on a grown man."

"How'd you know I was pouting?"

"We may have only known each other for a month, but you're kinda an open book."

"Oh, really," Steve said surprised.

"Yep."

"So what plans do you have for tonight?"

"I have a date."

"A date?" Steve choked out not sure how he felt about his little girl dating.

"Yes, a date. Don't get too worked up, it's a double date. The guy works for the city."

"What's his name?" Steve asked not bothering to hide his curiosity.

"I think I'll refrain from telling you until I know if there's going to be a second date or not. I'm sure the state of Hawaii wouldn't appreciate it if they found out you were running background checks on your daughter's boyfriends."

"I would never do that," Steve stated innocently.

"Right. Like I believe that, open book remember. So, I need to get ready. Text me with the time on Wednesday?"

"I will. Have a good time," Steve said.

More restless than when he came in the door, he didn't bother going upstairs for a clean pair of board shorts. He grabbed a pair from the laundry hamper and stripped in the downstairs bathroom. It was going to take a long swim to reach any measure of calm.

The swim helped. Steve came back in to reheat leftovers from yesterday's picnic. Debating between the table and the couch, the couch won. He flicked on the TV. to find _Die Hard _starting on a cable channel. Shrugging to himself, he slumped down with his food and watched. John McClane was ten minutes away from throwing Gruber out the window when Steve's phone rang.

Not recognizing the number he answered with his typical, "McGarrett."

"Hey, it's me. Can you come get me, please?" Arianna sobbed.

Steve slipped fully into protective father mode with a healthy dose of trained SEAL. "Arianna, what's wrong? Where are you?"

"The date was a disaster. Would you please come get me?"

"Honey, where are you?"

"I'm at Pukana la, puka 'ana on Ala Moana."

"Stay there. I'll be there as fast as I can," Steve said. "Do you want to stay on the phone until I get there?"

"I can't. It's not my phone," she said, crying again.

"I'm on my way. I'll be right there," Steve assured her again, grabbing his keys and badge from the door table and running to the truck. The call disconnected. Pulling his back up piece from the truck lock box, he hooked it to his belt, climbed in the truck and resisted the urge to turn on the sirens.

Pulling up in front of the club, Steve used his badge to intimidate the valet from moving the vehicle. He spotted Arianna standing to the side of the door looking shell shocked. He walked up to her side, reaching out to touch her arm. He grimaced when she flinched at his touch. Tugging a little harder, he got her to turn around. She immediately stepped into his arms. He was pretty sure she'd hide herself in his shirt if she could figure out how to do it. Steve guided her to the passenger side, buckling the seatbelt for her. He slid the attendant $10 for his help, jumped in and drove straight to his place.

Arianna's tears dried up about half way. Now she sat quietly hiccuping. Steve stole a glance at his upset child, trying to control the urge to punch something or someone. She looked so young, in need of protection. Throwing the truck into park, he rushed around the side to open the door for her. Holding her by the waist, he directed her to the couch, sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

Gently grasping her chin, he angled her head to look at him. His signing had come a long way but he wanted to make sure she understood him. "Wanna tell me what happened?" he asked softly.

She started crying again. Handing her a kleenex, he rubbed his hands up and down her arms until she was able to control her emotions and answer. "Sandy, her date and I met my date at the club. At first it was okay. We talked and were getting along. Sandy decided she wanted more excitement so they took off. I was okay with it. It was a public place, Greg was nice. He started drinking after they left. At one point, he popped what he said was aspirin, but I'm sure it wasn't because he started acting strange a few minutes later." A shiver interrupted her dialogue.

Steve reached for the afghan thrown over the back of the couch, wrapping it securely around her shoulders before he encouraged her to continue. "He started getting handsy and filthy mouthed. When I refused to go back to his place with him, he got angry and grabbed my leg, trying to get his hand up my skirt. That's when he got angrier."

"Why did he get angrier?" Steve asked, trying not to show his own anger.

"I may have stabbed his hand with my fork," Arianna admitted.

"That's my kaikamahine. What happened after that?" Steve proudly asked.

"He called me a tease and 'ilio wahine then he grabbed me by the hair and tried to march me out of the club. Some guy stepped in and convinced Greg to leave without me. The guy offered to call a cab for me, but I told him I'd rather call my dad if he'd let me borrow his phone. He would've waited with me I think, but his girlfriend was making noises."

"We'll go tomorrow and file a police report," Steve stated. Arianna started shaking her head before he finished his statement. "Arianna, if you don't file a report, he's going to keep up this behavior and the next girl might not be so lucky."

Arianna frowned but signed, "Fine."

"You come to the palace right after school and I'll go with you. What time do conferences start?"

"At six."

"Then we'll have plenty of time then, okay?" She lifted one shoulder in acquiescence. Steve moved to the couch, pulling her against his side. She relaxed against him and was soon asleep. He eased out from her, maneuvering her to lay fully on the sofa. He wedged a pillow under her head, removed her shoes and flipped out the blanket to cover her fully. Kissing the top of her head, he locked up leaving on the hall light for her. God help the punk that hurt his little girl if Steve ever got his hands on him.


	19. Chapter 19

Arianna was gone when he got back from his morning swim. He quelled the disappointment at not getting to share breakfast with her but felt better after reading her note:

_Dad,_

_Really wanted to have a cup of coffee with you this morning, but I figured that I should go home, shower and change clothes. My students are old enough to put two and two together to come up with creative interpretations. I'll be there after school. Be safe today. _

_Thank you for last night_

_Love, _

_Arianna_

_P.S. I'm okay, honest._

He folded the note, putting it in his wallet. It was the first time his daughter referred to him as "Dad".

Danny pounced the second Steve sat in his desk chair. "Did you speak with Arianna?"

Steve rubbed the back of his neck in consternation, Danny would go for the jugular. "Yeah, I did, but not about that."

"Why not? You can't tell me you chickened out," Danny declared. Seeing Steve deflate, Danny immediately changed course. "What happened? She okay?" he asked, voice filled with concern.

"Yeah, she's okay. There was an incident at a club last night. A guy made inappropriate advances."

"Do I need to help you hide the body?" Danny asked with sincerity.

"No. She wouldn't give me his full name. She's stopping by after work and I'm going to take her over to file a report," Steve stated calmly.

"Do we need to schedule some self defense courses with Kono?" Danny questioned.

Steve chuckled, shedding some tension. "It might be a good idea. Next time she might not have a fork handy."

"A fork? Do tell," Danny ordered, curiosity piqued.

"Arianna stabbed his hand with a fork."

"Exactly where was the hand that warranted being stabbed?" Steve's look told Danny all he needed to know. "Good for her." he proclaimed.

"What's with the 'we'?" Steve queried.

"Huh?" Danny grunted.

" You said 'We need to schedule'," Steve reiterated.

"Oh, that. I figure Grace will some day in the far future be dating and I fully expect your help. It takes a whole village and all that jazz," Danny explained.

Kono knocking on the glass halted their conversation. "Sorry to interrupt, boss, but the hospital called. Brian Tong is coherent."

Steve stood up, adjusting his gun as he did so. "You heard the lady, Danno. Let's go interrogate our drug addict.

The officer at the hospital door acknowledged the partners as they approached. "Commander, Detective Williams, the prisoner is coherent, but I'd stand back, he spits."

"Duly noted," Steve said as he motioned for Danny to proceed him into the room.

"Oh look! It's more stinkin' PIGS!" Tong shouted. "Well I. Got. News. For. You. Pig. I AIN'T TALKIN'." His spit made it to the floor next to his bed.

"Well how about I do the talking then," Steve said. "The way I see it, Brian, you are responsible for the murder of Ronald Davis. The question is whether we charge you with first degree or as an accomplice."

"I told you I ain't talkin'." Tong yelled. "I know my rights. You can't take away the snakes. They're mine! Give me back my snakes! You tell them I ain't gonna take the fall for their mess. Leaving all their skins behind. I ain't cleanin' up that shit. Not when I didn't do it." Tong continued to shout nonsense as he began to shake so hard the bed rattled.

"And the cognizant portion of our interview is over," Danny stated. He didn't want to get close enough to the prisoner to push the call button, so he leaned his head out the door to ask the officer to grab a nurse.

They waited long enough for the nurse to come in and inject something into the guy's I.V. On the way out, Steve spoke to the officer on duty. "It looks like by the time we get here, it's too late. Would you mind seeing what you can get out of him on his next lucid period?"

The man assured them he'd do what he could. Back at the Palace, the team continued to chase air until about 2:00 when the officer that had been guarding Brian Tong came into the office. Steve waved everyone to the main room.

"Commander, I hope what I got is going to be helpful. I recorded Mr. Tong, with his permission of course." He handed a USB drive to Chin who plugged it into the table and turned up the speakers.

"Hey man! I need to piss! Get me some help," Brian ordered, his voice faint.

"Mr. Tong," the officer said, "the nurse is on her way. Do you know what this device is?"

"I ain't stupid. It's a recorder," Tong answered, his voice clear now.

"Yes it is. Would you mind if I record our conversations?" the officer continued.

"Yeah, why the hell not. I got nuttin to hide."

Sounds of the nurse entering the room could be heard. "Mr. Tong, will you state in front of the the witness, Nurse Mai Kaz that you are okay with the conversations being recorded?"

"I told ya I was okay with it. Hell, you can even record me takin' a piss if that's what gets your johnny up," Tong bellowed.

"Nurse Kaz, are you aware that you are being recorded?" the officer asked.

"Yes. Now would you please step to here so I can help this man urinate?" a soothing, if slightly miffed female voice replied.

The following noises were self explanatory, as was the flushing of a toilet and running of water moments later.

"Christ, can't even take a piss without an audience. They pay you to watch me, huh?" Tong taunted.

"Mr. Tong are you aware of why you under police security in the hospital?" the officer asked.

"Yeah, yeah. You think I did Davis. You are so so so wrong. It was the snakes. They bit him full of poison then they shed their skins. All I did was clean up. Dump the trash on the lawn. Those two snakes they bad news. Like to slither around in the sewers. He thinks he's gonna be the King Cobra now."

"Who thinks he's gonna be the king cobra," the officer prompted.

"The new snake. Take out the other snakes and it'll make him the king, He's wrong. He nuttin but a belly scraper like the rest of them," Tong stated, spitting at the floor.

"Are you a belly scraper?"

"Nah. I gots more sense. I go from a to b, maybe sample a little in between, ya know. Need enough to keep my edge. And I gots an edge, finely sharpened. Just like that dude's sword in that movie. You know the one with the elf and the spider. That was a good movie. Saw it with my girl or was it with," Tong's rant ended with a snore.

The officer looked at the Five-0 members. "Not sure any of it is admissible in court, but maybe you can weed something out of his ramblings."

"Thank you so much for bringing this over," Danny said, shaking the man's hand.

"It's not a problem, Detective. My replacement has a recorder as well. Maybe the guy will get more lucid."

"Let's hope so. Thanks again," Steve replied.

"Okay, Kono, piece it together," Chin said once the officer had left.

"Me, why does it have to be me?"

"Because you're the one with the most experience in deciphering drug speak," Chin stated simply.

"Again, why me?" Kono protested.

"Two words, surfing groupies," Chin deadpanned.

"Shoots. Okay. We have at least three guys involved in the murder, possibly four if the wanna be king is not one of the other three mentioned. Currently they are all lower level dealers. The one with delusions of grandeur isn't as respected as he'd like to think he is. How I'd do?" she finished smugly.

"Impressive, cuz," Chin praised.

"I'm going out on a limb and say we have only three suspects out there. If the one is vying for top dog, he's not going to hire out the job. He'll want to do it himself," Danny added.

"I agree. We're looking for three guys," Steve said. "Chin, you searched yesterday. Any luck on Brian Tong's associates yet?"

"We've got nothing. Anyone connected to him is already doing time. No recent releases or paroles."

"Just we we need, another dead end," Steve said sarcastically. "Anybody got something on anything?"

"You do realize that made absolutely no sense, right?" Danny said. "Something did occur to me."

"Please enlighten us with your stroke of wisdom," Steve directed, not letting go of the sarcasm.

Danny rolled his eyes in irritation first. "Tong keeps referring to snakes. He mentioned them with us and then again on the tape. Shedding skins, cleaning up messes, I think there's something behind the rant."

"It couldn't hurt to check into it. I'll get the word out on the wireless, see if there's a new gang with a snake symbol or a dealer that's into keeping snakes," Chin said.

"It's better than nothing," Steve agreed. The four went back to their offices.

Since they exhausted all revenues to this point, Steve decided it would be a good time to work on all the paperwork being a state funded organization generated. It wasn't his first choice, but it needed to get done before the end of the month. Grabbing a file from his in box, he grimly set to work. One thing to be said about paperwork, it either bores you to tears or it takes more time than you think.

Steve was on his third report when Danny knocked on his door to let him know Arianna was waiting for him. She was talking with Chin about adjusting the timing on her bike when he made it out to the common area.

Giving her a warm hug, Steve asked, "You ready to do this?"

Arianna only nodded.

"We'll be back in a while," Steve told the gang. "Text me if anything comes up."

Watching the pair leave, Chin turned to Danny. "What's up with that?"

"It's not my place, Chin," Danny said.

"Fair enough. I think I might have found something on your snake theory."

"Show me what you got."

The two spent the next hour and a half going back and forth over the information Chin'd found trying to make a connection to their case. Danny was ready to call it a day when Steve returned. The SEAL, instead of going to his own office, went straight to Danny's to drop onto the couch. Chin raised his eyebrows and said, "This one's all yours, brah."

"Thanks, for the backup, buddy," Danny utter, pushing himself away from the tech table. "I'll remember this for next time."

Danny silently entered his own office, choosing to sit next to Steve rather than at his desk. He was stunned to see the tears running down his friend's face and the man's hands shaking. Contrary to popular opinion, Danny knew how to wait, he was a father after all.

Steve finally composed himself to whisper, "There's bruises on her upper, inner thigh, Danny. He gripped her so hard she has bruises."

"What's the bastard's name?" Danny ground out, his voice taking on a murderous tone.

"Greg Dayton and you're going to have to get in line," Steve growled. "It seems my daughter was only the first one of his victims last night. He accosted a woman a couple of blocks away from the club. Her boyfriend chased him off. He made it into another club. This time he went after a woman sitting at the bar. The bartender called HPD. Whatever he popped while he was with Arianna made him stupid, but it made him talkative. He lawyered up. He's being charged with one count of assault and two counts of sexual assault. At least he won't be able to make bail till morning."

"We know people at Halawa," Danny calmly stated.

Steve turned to his partner, "Danny, he hurt my little girl and I could do nothing."

"Wish I knew what to say to help you out. I'm not sure what I'd do if someone touched Grace like that," Danny said, wrapping an arm around Steve's shoulder. "Where's Arianna now?"

"She has parent/teacher conferences tonight. She refused to let me go with her. Said she wasn't going let it influence her life."

"Jeez, it doesn't take DNA to prove she's your daughter," Danny muttered. "Come on. We're done here for the night and you have somewhere you need to be."

Steve let Danny push him out of HQ and to the parking lot. He drove on automatic to school. He hesitated only a second before going inside to the gym to find his daughter. Finding a spare chair, he sat down behind her without saying a word. She reached back, patted his leg and said, "Thank you. You can make sure I get home safe too."

Danny had caught Chin as the man was leaving the building. "Hey Chin, you got any immediate plans?"

"Nothing to pressing, why?"

"How bout you and me take a little field trip to HPD lock-up?"

"Okay, I'll bite. Why are we going to HPD lock-up?"

"Just come on. I'll fill you in on the way," Danny said, opening the car door.

Sgt. Lukela watched Williams and Kelly come through the front door. The only thing that surprised him was Kono wasn't with them, Five-0 takes care of their own. "He's in cell four."

"Thanks, Duke," Danny replied as they sauntered past. The two men convinced the guard to play along with them. The three men stood off to the side of cell three, with a clear view of them for the occupants of cell fout.

"So, you're saying the guy already bail?" Chin said.

"That's what it says, last on the judge's docket. What you guys want him for anyway," the guard responded.

"Damn. Now we've got to track him done. It seems there was another assault on Ala Moana. This guy seems good for it too, wanted to ask him a couple of questions," Danny said.

"Let's just hope that the one girl's dad or uncles don't get to him before we do. I heard the dad is former Navy, kinda a hard ass and the uncles, they're cops," Chin said.

"Yeah, I'd hate to be in his shoes. It's one thing to be dumb enough to attack possibly four women in one night, but to have the luck of choosing one who has ohana like that. I almost feel sorry for the son of a bitch," Danny said.

"Well, thanks for your time, Kali," Chin said.

"Not a problem, guys," the guard answered.

Duke smiled and waved as the Five-0 teammates sauntered back out the doors they came in.


	20. Chapter 20

They finally got a break on the Davis murder Wednesday morning. The gang had just assembled for their morning briefing when the office phone rang. Brian Tong had lawyered up, but was willing talk for a deal. Danny and Steve headed for the hospital. They waited in hall for the ADA to join them, wanting to ensure the quickest way to get information.

"All right, Tong, what can you give us?" Steve asked, still not entirely certain he'd get a straight answer.

"My client will talk only if the charges are accessory after the fact," his lawyer said.

"If the information is valid and complete enough and the evidence shows that Mr. Tong did not participate in the murder, then that could be on the table," the assistant DA stated.

His lawyer nodded, so Tong talked. "You're looking for Jakob Pa'akaula and his distributors. He's the one who killed Davis. Took him out to create a job opening. What the ass doesn't know is that no one gots respect for him. He calls his network 'snakes' and he's the King Cobra."

"What was your role in all this?" Danny asked.

Tong snorted, "Just a job. Promised me some free shit if I helped. Set the stage, you know what I mean. Mainly I drove. Didn't do the heavy lifting."

"What about the other guys with you that night?" Steve questioned.

"You mean Jake and Elwood? They's Pa'akaula's boys. I don't know nothing bout them," Tong stated.

"I'm sorry, but did you just say Jake and Elwood? As in the Blues Brothers?" Danny asked, disbelieving his hearing.

"Oh, shit! That's where those came from! I knew I'd heard thems names before," Tong declared.

"Where do we find Pa'akaula?" Steve demanded, tiring of the game.

"He's got a place out in Kahala. Don't think he owns it though. No windows, place is run down," Tong replied unfazed by Steve's tone.

"Don't suppose you could give us an address or a description?" Danny coaxed.

"Nah. Only been there once to pick up Davis an' it was dark."

"Was Davis already dead when you got there?" the assistant district attorney asked.

"Shoots! He not only dead, man, but bare ass naked," Tong replied shuddering.

Steve and Danny pulled the ADA into the hall. "I think we've got all we're going to get from him. He's all yours." The partners left the man to do his part.

"So now all we have to do is check out all the abandoned buildings in Kahala. Piece of cake," Danny said sarcastically.

"Yeah. It's going to be a long day," Steve muttered. Calling Chin, he had the older man pull up all the listings for the abandoned homes in the area.

"That's going to be a big list, brah," Chin said.

"It's the only lead we've got," Steve replied. "Text us with the first address. Danny and I'll meet you there and we'll divide up at that point."

"Shouldn't take too long," Chin said.

Steve was about to pocket his phone when it rang. Glancing at the caller id he grinned. "Good morning, princess."

"Morning. I just got a call from an assistant district attorney," Arianna told him.

Steve frowned. "What did he want?"

"She wanted to tell me that he plead to all charges."

"Really? That's great. Now you won't have to ever see the scum again."

"Yeah, it's great, but I want to know what you did," Arianna stated.

"I didn't do anything," Steve claimed.

"Then why exactly is he scared of one of his victim's relatives? Dad and uncles to be precise," Arianna asked.

"I have no idea, honest," Steve replied.

"Okay. I believe you. We still on for tonight?" she said.

"Yes," Steve answered.

"The bell just rang, I've got to go. Tell Uncle Danny thank you."

"Will do." Steve turned to his partner who was doing his level best to appear the picture of innocence. "What did you do, Danno?"

"I have no idea what you are asking me," Danny replied as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

"The jerk who attacked Arianna made a plea deal. He was babbling about scary dads and uncles," Steve said, studying his partner closely.

"That's good news. Maybe the drugs the guy was popping caused him to hallucinate," Danny suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," Steve agreed, reading the glint in Danny's eyes. "Arianna says 'Thank you, Uncle Danny'."

Danny shrugged, "Chin sent the first address. Let's go."

They congregated three doors down from their first target. It was on the outskirts of their search area but Chin gave his reasoning. "I figure we should start on the perimeter and work our way into the row."

"Jeez, I really hope this guy isn't dumb enough use Kahala Ave. as his base," Kono said.

"Some of these outlying properties were his too or still are, I'm not sure," Chin told her.

"What better place to hide out in than a palatial run down mansion. I never would've thought there'd be this many empty houses in one area," Danny said.

"Yeah, it's disturbing. All right, let's split these up. Danny and I'll start on southeastern side. You guys start here on the northwest side. We'll work our way to Kahala Ave. Everyone stays with their partner and we check in after every three houses. You see anything suspicious, wait for back up. If these guys are sampling their own product then they're unpredictable."

Danny sighed, grabbing the TAC vests from the trunk. "It's going to be a long day. Hope no one had plans."

After the twelfth house for each team, finding nothing more than your average squatters and party hang outs, Steve called it. Twilight was setting in and he didn't want anyone checking houses in the dark. They'd resume first thing in the morning.

Danny dropped Steve off at his truck with a wave. Steve checked his phone to find he'd missed a text from Catherine. _Hey, sailor. Hope you are not out causing trouble. Just checking in. I'll try to call Friday or Saturday._

Sliding the phone back into his pocket, he looked at his watch. He needed to hustle if he was going pick Arianna up on time. He pulled into her drive with minutes to spare. Arianna was sitting on the front steps, obviously waiting for him. She jumped up the second she spotted the truck, almost skipping to the driver's door.

"Hey, how was your day?" Steve signed after she'd buckled up.

"Fabulous. I got called my first nasty name today," she said gleefully.

"And that's something to be happy about?" Steve asked confused.

"It is when the context is 'you're such a hard ass'," Arianna replied, her grin threatening to split her face. "I took it as a compliment."

"You are one of a kind. How about Kamekona's?"

"I could go for shrimp," she answered still grinning like an idiot.

Steve sent Arianna to a table while he placed their orders. "Well if it isn't one of my favorite cops and his charge," Kamekona greeted him.

"Hey big guy. Can I get one scampi and one garlic?" Steve replied.

"Comin' right up. You know if she's single, I have a couple of cousins that are available. Flipper is between ladies right now," Kame stage whispered, waggling his eyebrows.

Steve laughed. "She's out of Flipper's league."

"Oh I see. Your kaikamahine too good for my cousin," Kamekona said.

Steve stared at the bigger man in stunned silence.

"It's there for those who have eyes, brah. Yous just need to looks," Kamekona said. "No worries, brah. Your secret is safe with me."

Steve paid for the meals and carried them over to the table without saying another word.

"You look like someone smacked you over the head with a clue bat," Arianna declared as he sat down.

"Kamekona guessed," Steve flatly stated.

"Guessed what?"

"He called you my kaikamahine."

"Oh."

"That's all you have to say?"

"Do you want to tell everyone?" Arianna asked instead of answering.

"Only when we're both ready," Steve replied.

"You're ready now though, aren't you? Answer honestly."

"I wanted to tell everyone the minute the DNA was confirmed," Steve admitted. "Why are you so reluctant?"

Arianna stared out at the ocean for a few moments before replying. "I've never really had a parent. Jenny tried but she was so young that I was more like a playmate. There were times when I thought I could get away with anything, short of murder. Even Gran and Gramps weren't much of an influence. They were better with money, thank heaven." The wry smile she gave him made his heart break.

"I wish I could change the past. If Jenny'd told my dad…" Steve trailed off, remembering how he and Mary had been sent away. His dad probably would never have told Steve. "On second thought. It wouldn't have been any different. Did your grandparents help out?"

The wry smile was back. "They did what they could. They never gave her cash. It was always items. If it was clothes or stuff like that, they'd make sure the tags were all off or the items were already second-hand."

Steve's puzzled face said he wanted to ask, but wouldn't. Arianna continued, "Mom had a hard time judging priorities. If something caught her eye or she thought it would make her fit in more, she'd buy it rather than say toothpaste or milk."

Steve was flabbergasted. "Even after she got older?"

"Yeah. I guess the best example is my ink. I started saving for it when I was sixteen. A dollar here and there, but it took me a long time because I kept having to break into my stash to buy shoes or important items. Anyway, the day after I turned eighteen, Mom dragged me down to the parlor. She'd scheduled an appointment and given the guy my design. I didn't have anywhere near enough cause as you know," she paused to poke his shoulder, "ink isn't cheep. Jenny decided we didn't need gas or phone service for the month. She used the money to make a hefty deposit."

"So you got the ink because the guy didn't give refunds," Steve snarled.

Arianna leaned back, alarmed. Steve caught the reaction. "I'm not mad at you, I'm disgusted at the tattoo artist. No ethics. I'm a little disappointed in your mom too."

"It was what it was," she said to deflect his anger. "To get back to your original question. I want to know what it's like to have a parent that's responsible and one who cares about me without having to worry about what other's think. Just a little while longer anyway. If you really want to tell everyone, I'll be okay with it."

Steve took her hands in his, making sure she was looking right at him. "Arianna, you are the most important person in the world to me. When you're comfortable, we'll tell everyone. There's no rush." He reached up and wiped away the tear from her cheek.

Kamekona chose that moment to interrupt the pair. "McGarrett, yous better have a good reason for making the your kaikamahine cry or I won't be servin' you any more of my delicious faire. Don't make those we care for cry at my fine establishment."

Arianna looked to Steve to translate as the big guy didn't exactly face either of the pair. When Steve reiterated the man's concern, Arianna stood up for her dad, "No worries, brah. These are tears of joy."

Slapping Steve on the back making the SEAL wince, Kamekona said, "Yous lucky then. It's not every day someone special drops in your life. Maybe you should consider adopting her."

"Don't I know it, big guy and I'll take that under advisement," Steve replied. After Kame left them alone, Steve said, "Okay, maybe I gave the big more credit than he deserves. I don't think he knows."

"Judging by what he just said, i would agree," Arianna said.

The pair finished their meal, chatting about small things. Arianna shared some antidotes from school and Steve told her about their meth head's rants.

Arianna suddenly looked very serious. "How often are you in harms way and how oftern do you or one of your teammates get hurt on the job?"

Steve hadn't expected the line of questioning, so it took him a second to formulate an answer. "Being a cop isn't a cakewalk. Being a special task force adds to the dangerous element."

"That's not answering the question," Arianna stated when she realized he wasn't going to continue. "Give it to me straight. I need to know if I need to up my prayers to St. Michael."

Steve actually looked sheepish for being called out. "I'd say about fifty percent of the time we're actually in a dangerous situation. As for getting hurt, it rarely happens. A few times a year."

Pointing to his fading black eyes, she asked, "So have you used your quotient for the year?"

Steve laughed, "I'm about halfway."

Arianna snorted, "And they say kids give their parents gray hair."

Steve laughed again, "Finish up. I promise to foot the bill for your first dye job."

"You'd better."

Declining Steve's invitation for shaved ice because she had papers to grade, Arianna kissed her dad good bye in the drive. Waiting for her to make it inside, Steve marveled at how lucky his life was right now. He made the rest of the trip home on a happy note.

Waking up after a night without nightmares, Steve realized that since Arianna had come into his life, he'd been having fewer and fewer nightmares. He wasn't fooled that his PTSD was cured, but she'd made the world a better place. His morning routine flew by and Danny was there to pick him up before he knew the time had passed.

"Have a good night with your kid?" Danny asked, taking in his partner's buoyant demeanor.

"Yeah, yeah I did," Steve replied with a goofy grin.

"Makes a difference having a focus, doesn't it," Danny said solemnly.

Steve didn't ever pretend to not understand his friend. "Yeah."

Clapping his hands together then rubbing them Danny exclaimed, "Let's go check out some more derelicts."

"Word of the day?"

"One of Grace's spelling words for the month."

Coordinating with Chin and Kono, the team finished clearing all of the abandoned houses except for those on Kahala Ave., by lunch time. They regrouped to grab some food and lay out the plan for checking the mansions. It was decided that they'd start on each end and work their way to the middle. Chin made sure both groups had copies of the search warrants so not matter what home the got to, they were covered. With roughly eighteen houses, averaging 25,000 square feet of property a piece, the team was in for a long day. Quick checks to equipment and comms, the teams dispersed, agreeing to check in after every house.

Steve and Danny were on their fifth house when Chin's voice came over the comms. "Steve, we've found Pa'akaula. He's got three men with him."

"Hold your position. We'll call for back up and join you," Steve ordered.

As Danny called for HPD back up, the pair quickly made their way down the street to the rest of the team. "Chin, location."

"We've got the front covered. They're camped out in the front part of the house."

"We'll circle around back, let you know when we're in position. As soon as HPD arrive, we'll breach," Steve said.

Steve and Danny carefully made their way around the side of the house to the backyard. They were immediately assaulted by an overwhelming stench. "Jeez. That smells like a sewer," Danny whispered in disgust, covering his nose and wiping at his running eyes.

"Don't breathe too deep. The sewer system must have a leek back here," Steve replied, pulling his t-shirt up to cover his nose.

They were half way to the doors when they heard Kono and Chin simultaneously, "Five-0! Drop your weapons! We've been made. Two are coming your way, boss."

What happened next would forever be a matter of debate every time the story got told. Danny's version generally became the accepted tale as his was more colorful.

"The two idiots thought they'd be able to out run a Navy SEAL and a cop. Why they were holding hands is still unclear. They came flying out the doors, heading for the back of the property, towards the pool. Steve and I chased them to patio surrounding the pool. Realizing they'd managed to get themselves to the one location where the fence was still intact, the smaller idiot spins around unexpectedly, trying to get around us. His hand holding partner trips on the broken patio and loses his balance, falling backwards towards the pool. His partner tries to stop the fall but the bigger guy has too much momentum. The smaller guy is screaming like a banshee and somehow he manages to grab the front of Steve's tac vest trying to keep from following his partner. I heard a splash and I remember thinking thank god there's water to land in, maybe he won't break all his bones. Then I see Steve catch his foot on the uneven ground and despite all of his ingrained talents, he starts to go over too. Reaching out to grab him, I manage to get ahold of the back of his vest, but it wasn't enough, too many flailing arms and legs. There was a brief moment where I'm sure we looked like monkeys on roller skates. The next clear thoughts were 'I hope I land on one of our suspects' and 'Oh, my God! What is that smell?' In a blink, I'm laying on my back, half on top of a suspect and half on Steve, staring up into the blue sky and it dawns on me. We've landed in a cesspool masquerading as a swimming pool. I'm about to say something profound, or at least I thought it was profound, when Steve moans and moves under me, almost capsizing us both. Our two suspects aren't moving, I figure they're too afraid to since they were on the bottom of the pile. Instincts finally kicked in and between the two of us, Steve and I get the suspects up out of the sewer water to the shallow end of the pool which was blissfully dry. Chin had the decency to not laugh until after he told us he'd called for ambulances and hazmat. And through it all, Steve kept his weapon. Mine, sadly, needed to be retrieved."


	21. Chapter 21

Steve sat on his couch, idly scratching at the I.V. port in his left arm. Technically, he was scratching at the tape holding the stupid thing in and the more he scratched, the more it itched. Typical. Tripping over a patio brick and falling into a swimming/cesspool wasn't one of his more spectacular moments. Never in his wildest imagination could he have guessed all the possible diseases they'd been exposed to and considering all the shit he'd seen in his life, that was saying something. Steve was pretty sure the doctors had simply pulled out the CDC's guide for communicable diseases and started reading alphabetically. There was small consolation in the fact that Danny had been right there with him and was now sporting his own taped down needle. Thank goodness Cath was on her two week reserve training. It was going to be bad enough dealing with his daughter let alone Cath.

From their conversation last night, he knew Arianna was still trying to wrap her head around what he did for a living and how dangerous it was. She'd admitted to praying for his and the team's safety. His daughter had such a big heart. It didn't mean that she wasn't going to tear him a new one for this latest act.

He'd been sitting there for almost an hour when the sound of car pulling up distracted Steve from his scratching. From the whine of the belt he needed to replace for her, it was Arianna. He didn't bother getting off the couch knowing she'd use her key to come on in.

Without preamble, she said, "Soooo, an open septic tank, huh.?"

"Yup." That one word made him realize signing was going to be a bit difficult, a lot of finger spelling with his right hand.

She couldn't stop the laugh that erupted from her throat; a laugh that reminded Steve of his dad even with the flat tone that came through her voice. "Okay. What's the course of treatment, besides the Silkwood shower at the hospital of course?" she questioned while gesturing to the scrubs and flip flops the nurse had given him to come home in.

Signing slowly because he still wasn't as proficient as he'd like especially one arm down, he started to explain, "We get I.V. antibiotics two times a day for the next five days and it was a swimming pool filled with sewage back up."

"Like that is any better," Arianna said trying to hid her grin behind her hand, she couldn't silence the snicker though. Steve started to reply, but stopped with a grimace. Taking pity on him she told him to forget about signing, she'd read his lips until the I.V. was removed. Moving to sit on the coffee table in front of him, she gave him a thorough once over before she spoke again. "Any injuries you're hiding from the world?"

Steve took her hands in his, "Just my wounded pride. I'm fine, honestly."

"Good. I'm assuming the 'we' means Danny was right behind you."

"That would be an affirmative. Actually, he tried to keep me from falling, but I kinda took him with me," Steve snickered.

"You two are impossible," she chuckled. "Where do you have to go for these drugs?"

"The hospital. We're both on desk duty till the drug regime is done," Steve told her, his face showing his displeasure at being side lined.

"Better to ride a desk than be stuck in the hospital for five days," Arianna comforted, patting his shoulder, trying very hard not to laugh because seriously, the whole incident was extremely funny.

Steve took one look at Arianna's face and cracked up. Father and daughter started laughing and didn't stop until they were both crying. Slowly their laughter ebbed to giggles then to hiccups. They both had to wipe their eyes and noses to make themselves presentable.

"I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. How about we call Danny, grab some food and then you and Grace can escort us to our second round of drugs," Steve suggested after he had enough control to speak clearly.

Danny and Grace readily agreed to the plan. Grace wanted tacos and Danny was too tired to complain when someone offered to do all the work. Arianna efficiently guided the group through dinner and to Queen's Medical. For a hospital, it went amazingly easy as everything had been set up earlier before the two had been allowed to leave. The foursome were soon sitting in a comfortable room, Danny and Steve in recliners attached to drip bags. The nurse had left blankets and emesis basins, for the drugs could cause chills and on occasion, nausea. Her declaration caused four identical frowns to appear. Grace settled in with a book from school and Arianna was having Steve and Danny read some of her students papers when both patients started to shake slightly. Neither man said a word, but Grace nudged Arianna and tipped her head towards the blankets.

Sighing and muttering something about mules, Arianna gathered the papers, accepted the blanket Grace threw to her. Mimicking the younger girl's actions, they shook out the blankets and tucked them around their now shivering fathers.

Danny's "thank you" was interrupted by Steve's "I'm gonna puke." Grace managed to get him the basin in time.

Moving to hold the bowl for him, Arianna said, "Grace, hand your dad his and then go get the nurse and tell her what's going on."

Noticing how pale her dad was looking, she did exactly as asked. By the time she came back with the nurse, both men were sick. "Oh, my. This usually doesn't happen. I'm going to get the on call doctor." She did pull out clean basins from the cupboard and empty the full ones before she left.

"This is ridiculous," Danny managed before he needed the bin again.

"It's okay, Danno. Arianna and I'll take care of you and Uncle Steve," Grace assured, rubbing her dad's back like she'd seen Arianna do.

It seemed like forever but was probably only ten minutes until the nurse returned with two syringes in her hand. "The doctor said that with the combination of antibiotics you two are on, he'd have been surprised if you didn't get sick. He's authorized antiemetics for both of you if you're agreeable." At the weak nods she received, she scanned their bracelets and injected the medicine into the I.V. 's. "There, that should take effect soon. We'll make sure this is added to your regimes for tomorrow and hopefully we'll avoid this."

Breathing through his nose, eyes closed, head back, Steve waited until he heard the door close then growled, "That woman is entirely too cheerful." Only Arianna and Grace chuckled as Danny was too busy concentrating on not throwing up again.

An hour later saw the daughters escorting their slightly grayish tinged fathers towards the car. Neither man made a sound as Arianna drove them to Danny's place. Steering both men to the couch, Arianna set Grace to her nighttime routine then turned to Steve.

"Hand me your phone please," she directed.

"What do you need my phone for?" Steve asked as he slowly complied.

"Because mine doesn't have all the numbers I need. Danny, do you have Grace for the whole weekend?" Arianna replied, not really explaining.

"Yeah. Rachel's in Vegas until next Saturday," Danny signed.

"Okay, you two sit there and breathe through your noses while I make some arrangements," Arianna directed.

While they were both feeling better, they were in no state to argue with their new babysitter. Arianna smiled to herself as the two men leaned their heads back on the couch and closed their eyes, identical in their stances. She briefly wondered how long they'd been partners.

Taking Steve's phone to the kitchen, she procured a pen and paper from Grace and started dialing. When she was done, Grace was ready for bed and the partners were snoring.

"Okay, sleepy heads," Arianna said shaking them lightly. Grace giggled as the two awoke with the same snorts and snuffs.

Arianna winked at Grace then turned back to the guys who were doing their level best not to seem sleep stupid. "Okay, guys, here's what's going to happen over the next few days. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to drop Steve off here when I pick up Grace to take her to school. Chin is going to pick both of you up and take you for your meds. After which he'll either bring you back here or take you into work, depending on how it goes. Then tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday, Grace and I'll be escorting your sorry butts back and forth to your treatments. Monday, Chin will once again be here while Kono takes Grace to school. I'd do it, but I have an early staff meeting. However, Monday night, I'll be back on duty. Any questions?"

They glared at their dictator/baby sitter to no effect. "I'll take your silence as agreement. Danny, do you think you can get yourself to bed?"

The blond gave her a slit eyed look and managed to stand up under his own steam. "I can make it," he said. Grace smirked and gave him a shoulder to lean on.

"Okay, that leaves you, superman. Let's get you home," Arianna said, holding her had out to Steve who gratefully leaned on her all the way to the car.

Getting home and settled in proved to be less of a hassle than Steve thought it would be. Arianna helped when he needed it and stayed within reach when he didn't. She left him tucked in his bed with a couple of glasses of water, a bucket, a kiss and a promise to see him bright and early in the morning.

Feeling much better physically, Steve was sitting outside in a lawn chair when his ride arrived. "That belt sounds bad. Why don't you take my truck for the day," he said as she approached him.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," she snarked.

"Sorry, slight headache. Good morning," he rejoined giving her a hug. "You need help transferring your stuff?"

"My you're grumpy this morning. You get up on the wrong side of the ocean?" she teased.

Steve wasn't about to tell her about the nightmares he'd had about her so he just said, "Sorry," again.

"It's okay. I wouldn't be in the best of moods either if I thought I had to got through what you did last night," Arianna said.

Steve jerked back in amazement before it occurred to him she was talking about being sick and not the dreams. "Yeah, it's like looking forward to going to the dentist."

When they got to Danny's, Chin was waiting for them. Pointing to the expressions on the faces of the two other men, Arianna made some joke about a prisoner exchange and gallows that had the older man laughing so hard he had to bend over to catch his breath.

"It's nice to know my daughter is such a caring, loving woman," Steve muttered.

Arianna missed what he said but could read his face, "We're laughing with you, not at you."

"You're a brat," Steve responded.

"So you've said. Now I need to leave to get Grace and me to school on time. I'll see you guys tonight," Arianna tossed out as she helped Grace into the truck. The two girls gave cheeky waves as they drove away.

Chin ushered his two 'prisoners' to the 'gallows' where they had a little better experience than the night before. They were both feeling well enough to head to HQ for paperwork.

Thankfully, they got no new cases for the day. The paper work for the Davis case took most of the day. CSU found enough evidence at the house to make it conclusive the place was the scene of the murder and HPD found a meth lab on the second story of the house. Pa'akaula and his buddies were going away for a long time.

Arianna checked in with Steve to see how he'd faired that morning and to ask how he wanted to handle dinner. After a quick conference with Danny, they decided it would be best to eat something light afterwards. Arianna said she'd pick up Grace from Danny's first then pick them up. More conversing between partners led to the decision that everyone would be camping out at Steve's house for the weekend to make everything easier.

Arianna and Grace breezed into HQ a little before five. Steve still had a couple of reports he wanted to get through so the two girls made themselves at home in Kono's office. Steve glanced up every so often to watch the trio. They looked so young and carefree. Even with the age differences, it was apparent the three would always be good friends.

Danny opened his door. "You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah, just a minute," Steve replied, scribbling his signature on the last form. "Why are you so eager to do this?"

"I want it out of the way is all," Danny said.

"You and me both, partner. Let's get our kids."

Friday evening's appointment went even better than the previous two. Arianna kept them distracted by reading more students papers aloud. If there was a lot of nose breaths and scrunched eyes, no one said anything. When they were finished, neither man was ready for food so Arianna stopped at Danny's to get their stuff for the weekend then detoured to her house. Leaving Grace in charge, she ran in to grab her own stuff. They ended up eating canned soup at Steve's place.

Sleeping arrangements became a bone of contention. Grace and Arianna were perfectly content to have a slumber party in the living room but Danny really likes the couch so that kiboshed that. Steve, being a perfect gentleman, offered up his bed for the girls. That led to an argument over age and parental privileges. Steve won. He took Mary's room, because "I'm your father and I said so," really works.

After a day spent being semi-miserable (the two men) and taking advantage of the private beach (the two girls), Steve and Danny settled into the beach chairs after the girls had retired for the night.

"Steve, you talk to Arianna yet?"

"Haven't had a chance to," Steve admitted.

"I really think you should do it soon. She looks like she's lost weight since last Sunday even," Danny stated.

"Yeah, I can see it. You don't think she has an eating disorder do you? I mean, we've seen her eating several times this last week. I haven't seen her sneak off to the bathroom or anything like that."

"I don't know, but something is definitely wrong," Danny replied.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow after our next round," Steve promised.

True to his word, Steve caught Arianna after lunch while Danny and Grace were trying to build sandcastles on the beach. "Arianna, I have something to ask you and I want an honest answer. Are you sick or is something else wrong? Because you've lost a noticeable amount of weight since we've met and I'm worried."

Arianna looked her father straight in the eye and told him a half truth. "I'm not sick and nothing's going on. I'm just having a hard time getting use to the different food and I'm more active than I use to be. I need some time to get everything equalized out is all."

Steve had no reason not to believe her. "Okay. If there's anything I can do, you promise to tell me?"

"I will," she said.

Sunday afternoon they were in the middle of a highly animated game of charades when Catherine called. Steve stepped off the lanai to take the call. "Hey. How's life on the ship?"

"It's good. What's all that noise? You having another party?" Catherine asked when she heard Danny's booming laugh.

"Nah. We're playing charades."

"You're playing charades? Seriously?" Cath asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's fun. I think Grace is going to beat us all. She's already ahead by ten points and we've only had one round."

"Well, that's something I can't quite picture, you playing charades. Anything else exciting going on?"

"Nope. We finished up a case Thursday and it's been wonderfully quiet all weekend," Steve replied.

When another roar of laughter and a "Hey, Steve, hurry up! The girls are cleaning the floor with me. I need my partner," came across the line, Catherine said, "Sounds like you're missing out on the fun. I'll let you go."

"Okay. It was good to hear from you. You need me to pick you up when you get back?" Steve offered.

"No, but thanks, I've got it covered," she said.

"See you next Monday then," Steve told her, ending the call.

Steve jogged back to rescue his partner. It didn't even occur to him but he'd blown off his girlfriend for the company of his daughter, his best friend and his honorary niece.

Sunday night's med routine was easier. They'd finally got the antiemetics right so all the guys had to deal with were the chills. Grace and Arianna entertained themselves by laying at odds as to which of their fathers would start to shake first and which one would be the first to ask for a blanket. Much to the two men's shame, the girls came out equal.

Arianna left Monday morning before Chin and Kono arrived. Steve found that he had a harder and harder time watching his daughter leave. Like Grace for Danny, Arianna was the center of his universe. he couldn't shake the feeling that she was going to run away, though. The longer she waited to publicly acknowledge their relationship, the more unease he felt.

"Steve, you okay?" Chin asked, touching his friend's shoulder.

"Honestly, Chin, I don't know. The closer I get to her, the more I'm sure she's not completely honest with me."

"You asked her about it?"

"About some things. She's a bit closed off."

"Like father, like daughter then." Steve pulled back in shock as Chin continued, "You can't expect her to be open with you if you aren"t open with her. Have you told her any part of your side of the family?"

"No, I haven't," Steve admitted.

"Then maybe you should. Come on, your chariot for antibiotics awaits."

"I can't wait. What's the going odds?" Steve asked.

"Three to one against you for the shakes and four to one against Danny for the blankets," Chin said solemnly, eyes glinting with mischief.

The team made it HQ by nine. Paperwork was never anyone's favorite but when it involved officers and hospital visits, the appeal decreased tenfold.

Danny and Steve camped out in Steve's office so they could create a cohesive story. Or at least a believable one.

"No, Steven, the skinny guy fell in after the big one. You fell on the big one."

"Good thing I did or I'd have been face first in the, uh, liquid. Did Chin tell you their physical features matched up with their fictitious names?"

"No, he didn't. You're tell me we took down the Blues Brothers?" Danny said, sounding quite pleased with himself.

"Yep! We went sewer swimming with cultural icons."

"You, my friend, are a buzz kill."

"Sorry, Danno, one of us needs to be a realist. I'm sorry missed out on the interrogations though," Steve said.

"I'm not sorry we missed out. I'm sorry for the reason why we missed out," Danny countered. "I don't think my own mother scrubbed me that well when I was a baby."

Steve shuttered in response.

Around lunchtime Steve called a team meeting. "We get any further on the armor car heist?"

"Sorry, boss, we've got nothing new. It's like the guys are ghosts," Kono replied. "There's no traffic cams on that stretch of the road. They hit it at a time with minimal traffic. These guys aren't amateurs. It almost seems like the perfect crime."

"There's no such thing, cuz," Chin stated.

"I know but that's what this looks like," Kono rebutted.

Steve scrubbed his hand over his chin. "All right, here's what we're going to do. Start looking at all the SWAT teams on the other islands. Maybe some of them are involved."

"You're talking about stepping on some toes here," Chin pointed out.

"You're right. Call Lou. Hopefully he'll be willing to pave the way for us. If you need to talk to some in person, let me know," Steve responded. "Danny, you and I are going to visit Fort Shafter, see if we can get some lists of their speciality teams."

"That would be awesome, Steve, except for one thing," Danny started to say.

"What would that be, Danny?" Steve asked, a little perturbed.

Danny grabbed his partner's left arm with his own, bringing them up to Steve's eye level. "Ah, son of a bitch. Okay, you and I will start calling the military bases. If we don't get anywhere today, we'll visit them tomorrow," Steve said.

"Much better plan," Danny snorted.

"So after lunch, let's," Steve started.

"You know, we haven 't look into former SWAT team members yet," Danny pointed out, interrupting the boss.

"Steve looked like he wanted to do a face palm. "You're right, we haven't. We've concentrated on current members. That's an oversight on our part."

"Most of those guys are going to be older. You think they'd be involved in something like this?" Chin said.

"I'll look at those who've retired in the last five years and any that have applied and been rejected," Danny decided.

"Guess that leaves the military to me," Steve said.

"Who better than Smooth Dog to suck up to the brass," Danny stated.

"Let's see what got packed in our lunches and then we'll get on it," Steve said motioning Danny towards the break room.

"Ah, how sweet. Someone packed you peanut butter sandwiches and juice boxes," Kono razzed.

"Hey! I'll have you know, the kid's a fabulous cook. With any luck we have sandwiches made from the leftover roast chicken she made yesterday. Right, Danny?" Steve declared over his shoulder.

When Danny didn't immediately answer, Steve stopped and turned around to face his three friends, who each sported very unique expressions. Danny's face said, "This is why I don't let you out in public unchaperoned." Chin's face said, "I work with a bunch of thirteen year olds." Kono's face plainly stated, "What in the hell is going on. Did I miss something!"

"What?" Steve blustered.

"Nothing," Danny soothed, recovering first. "Come on, buddy, let's go eat ."

Steve's continued "whats" carried the pair to the break room. They stopped when Danny slapped the man on the arm. Steve looked angry, then chagrined.

Watching the pair from the main room, Kono spoke after Steve'd dropped into a chair and Danny'd handed him a wrapped sandwich. "From Steve's delighted puppy face, Arianna must have came through with the chicken."

At Chin's raised eyebrows, Kono continued, "It's not like it isn't obvious. Steve's kinda taken with her, kinda a big brother complex."

"It seems that way. She seems to care a lot about him too. Just look at this week."

"It's good for Steve. He's got a big heart and he needs someone who needs him. Don't you dare tell him I said that though."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Chin replied.

In the break room, Danny confronted Steve. "You need to tell everyone soon, before you're thought to speech filter gives out and you blab it anyway."

"We've talked, Danny. She's not ready yet. It's like you getting back into the ocean. She'll tell when it's time, with the right push."

"When you put it like that, I have to respect it. No more will be said," Danny conceded.

"Good. Now let's finish up here and get back to work," Steve said.

Steve's phone ran as he was looking up phone numbers for the various bases. "I understand…. Kono and Chin'll be there…. Not cleared till after tonight."

Opening his door, Steve bellowed, "Chin, Kono, grab your gear. We've got another heist. I'll send the info to your phones."

Danny stood in his doorway, absentmindedly scratching his arm, watching the pair gear up and head out. "Never thought I'd be grateful for being on desk duty," he said to Steve behind their parting backs.

"I just hope we get enough to catch these guys this time," Steve replied.

"That's what we do, man. That's what we do," Danny said going back to his phone calls.

Four hours later the cousin duo returned to fill in their desk bound teammates.

"What've you got?" Steve asked eagerly. The continuous run around he'd been receiving all afternoon had taken it's toll on his patience.

"This one's almost an exact carbon copy of the first. SWAT pulls them over, pulls the guys out of the front of the truck," Chin informed them.

"They were more physical this time. The driver received some contusions to his face," Kono added. "The bad guys also took out the radios this time. A passing motorist called it in, but it was a good thirty minutes after the attack."

"Seems like their learning from their mistakes, taking out the radios," Danny suggested. "What road was this on that it took thirty minutes for another passing car?"

"This one was on Kahekeli Hwy, south of the Valley of the Temples," Kono answered.

"That road usually isn't that deserted," Steve said confused.

"It is during that time of day. One of the reasons the armored car goes through there. Less change of a hijacking," Chin said. "Or at least that's what they use to think."

"Whoever these guys are, they have a solid knowledge of the routes. Maybe we're looking at former employees," Danny said.

"We thought of that but it would have to be employees from two different companies," Chin replied.

"Still, it's a possibility. Chin, why don't you follow up on that and Kono..," Steve said.

"I'll work with Grover and the other islands," Kono finished for him.

"Hey, maybe we'll get lucky and CSU will be able to pull something from the cameras this time," Steve continued.

Chin shook his head. "Highly unlikely, they were smashed with hammers."

The rest of the day passed with the team closeted in their offices, pursuing every angle they could think of to catch their robbers. If there was some gratuitous shouting, no one dared to point it out. At 5:30, a welcome distraction walked through the HQ doors in the form of two giggling young ladies.

Steve and Danny were out of their offices like they'd been shot out of cannons.

"What's so funny?" Danny asked the still snickering girls.

"Danno, Arianna was telling me how girl's locker room at her school flooded," Grace said.

"Do we want to know?" Steve asked cautiously.

"Probably not. It's a girl thing," Grace stated with a serious face but started laughing again when Arianna made the sign for 'flush'.

Chin and Kono, curious, joined the four in the main area. "Dare I ask?" Chin said, raising his eyebrows.

"Apparently, it's a girl thing," Danny explained.

"Okay, then," Chin replied.

Arianna's phone preempted any other inquiries. Looking at the caller id., she asked Steve, "Can I borrow your office?"

"Yeah, sure," Steve replied, waving her towards the door.

Danny, with Grace's help, shut down his computer for the night and tidied up the office, while they waited for Arianna. When they were done, the duo came back expecting to be ready to go but found the other three members of Five-0 still talking while a clearly agitated Arianna paced in Steve's office.

"Everything okay in there?" Danny asked, concerned.

"I'm not sure. I know it takes a while for the translator to work, but there seems to be some awfully long pauses in the conversation," Steve replied.

"You think you should check on her?" Danny suggested.

"It's a private phone call, Danny."

"I don't know, boss. Maybe you should change your mind. She's got the same look on her face that you get just before you blow something up," Kono said.

"Okay, I'll give her two minutes more and then I'll intervene and I do not have a face," Steve said.

"Seriously, babe. Do we really need to have this conversation again?" Danny questioned, slapping Steve on the shoulder.

The sound of ceramic breaking and a very loud, "Damn It!" prevented Steve from replying. He whipped around to see his daughter kneeling on the floor. Rushing to his office, he surveyed the scene better. Arianna was kneeling next to his desk, picking up the pieces of what had been the coffee mug from his desk. She was crying.

Touching her shoulder to get her attention, he crouched down next to her. "What happened?"

Quickly controlling her sobs, Arianna made eye contact. "I swung my hand out and caught the mug. I think I've cut myself," she whispered, raising her hand towards him.

Steve gently reached for the proffered hand to find that she had indeed sliced her hand open. Pulling out the shard still stuck in the wound first, Steve then carefully pulled her up and moved her to his couch. He was just about to call for the med kit and a broom when he noticed Danny and Grace standing in the doorway with the items at hand.

Grace handed Steve the med kit then held the dustpan as Danny swept up the broken mug.

"Sorry," Arianna whispered as Steve cleaned and bandaged the gash on her palm.

Putting a finger under her chin, Steve coaxed her to raise her head. "Accidents happen." Knowing she wouldn't talk in front of company, Steve chose to redirect everyone's attentions. "How about we go and get the last round of medicinal hell over with and then grab some take out?"

"Sounds like a plan. Grace, I think it's your turn to choose," Danny said, infusing his tone with lightness.

Grace, smart enough to understand the underlying statements said, "Then I choose Chinese. The queasy can get egg flower soup."

Steve showed remarkable restraint, he waited until he pulled into Arianna's driveway before he asked about the phone call. "You want to tell me what that was all about back at HQ?"

"It was nothing," Arianna replied quietly. Steve, pulled out the big guns. He used his best _I'm going to get you to talk _interrogator face. She caved. "It was the lawyer for mom's estate, some unexpected hiccups. I think he may be stalling to earn more commission."

Steve knew his next words needed to be phrased carefully. "Do you want me to help you with this?"

Arianna gave him a tentative smile. "As much as I'd like to say yes and let you be the tattooed knight in the big blue pickup, I need to take care of this myself."

"Okay, I'll accept that for now but remember, you're not alone. I can help."

"I know and one day you might regret saying that."

"Never, that's what dads are for," Steve said, pulling her into a hug. "Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. It's going to be weird not babysitting you," she teased.

"Have I told you, you're a brat?" Steve asked.

"Maybe once or twice, but not in the last twenty-four hours," she quipped jumping out of the truck. "Talk to you tomorrow."

Steve waited until she was safely inside before he pulled out and headed home.


	22. Chapter 22

Tuesday proved fruitless, every avenue a dead end. Chin spent the day with Grover to the big island. All he got out of it was a decent lunch. Kono tried very hard not to piss off the city clerk in her efforts to get the lists of retired and non-hired. It was a toss up as to who slammed their phone receiver harder and more often, Danny, Kono, or Steve.

The highlight of the day was Arianna calling to ask a favor.

"Hey, honey, what's up?" Steve asked,his pleasure at speaking with her evident in his voice.

"I know this is last minute, but we had a last minute cancelation for our Career Day and I was wondering if..."

"You want us to come for Career Day?" Steve finished for her.

"Well, you and Kono. My principal knows the unlikely hood of a deaf person being a police officer, but he suggested that the diversity would keep the kid's attention. He thought you might even mention you're military career if you're comfortable with it."

"I suppose that having Kono fills the gender spot," Steve guessed.

"Well that and the former pro surfer bit is appealing," she admitted.

"You said last minute. When is it?" Steve asked.

"Tomorrow at 1:00, but you wouldn't speak till 1:45 and you'd each have fifteen minutes," Arianna answered.

"Right now, it's feasible, but if we get a case," Steve cautioned.

"I mentioned that, so that's why you're last on the agenda. If something comes up, we'll excuse the kids early," Arianna assured. "So, can I tell the principal yes?"

"Yes, you're the only one I'd do this for," Steve said.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm fairly certain that if Grace asked you'd go."

"Yeah, but I might make her beg a little harder," he conceded.

"I'll meet you at the office a little before one, if that's okay."

"Sounds good. Do we need to have visual aides and what about the fact that I barely sign and Kono doesn't at all?" Steve queried.

"You can use visuals, but it's not required. As for the signing, there's a designated interpreter," she informed him.

"We probably won't have any aides. Not enough time."

"Good cause Danny's told some stories about punching elevator buttons with you're pistol in front of a young boy," Arianna ribbed.

"It was one time," Steve protested. "He needs to let it go."

Laughing, Arianna said, " Bye, see you tomorrow."

Kono literally jumped at the chance participate in the assembly. "It'll be a blast, brah. They may not be able to beat cops but they can be administrative or desk investigators. All the stuff we've done the last couple of days would be applicable."

"Be careful, you'll soon be volunteering for every Career Day request," Danny warned.

"There could be worse things. He could volunteer me for every in house tour," Kono said.

"Or escort for any future television personalities," Danny suggested.

"Now that you mention it," Steve started.

"Not really trying to give you any ideas, boss," Kono cut him off.

"Still, something to think about."

Around six, Steve called it quits. He'd give Chin the time after getting back from the Big Island and he'd let Danny and Kono go an hour or so ago. As he cleaned his desk up, he noticed a piece of paper caught under the corner of his desk. Hoping it was something that didn't need his immediate attention, he pulled it out to lay on his desk for tomorrow when he realized it wasn't his paper work.

_Ms. McGarrett,_

_ We again extend our apologies for your loss._

_ As the executors of Jenny Feldman's estate, we only have our client's best interest in mind as we work together with you to settle all matters. While we believe we have all the necessary paperwork from you, we need to be diligent in verifying the information. You're subsequent move to Hawaii has complicated matters._

_ If this results in a day in the distribution of the estate, we extend our sincerest apologies and reassure you that we are working as quickly as possible._

_ If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any time. Any and all expenses will be deducted from the final distribution._

_Sincerely,_

_John Max ATL._

_Max, Hall and Associates_

The letter was dated last week. Steve powered his computer on and did a quick search. He didn't like what he found. The law firm Jenny had chose to handle her estate was a two bit hack place. The founding partner, John Max, had barely graduated from law school and had taken the bar eight times. His associate, Dan Hall didn't have any better credentials. Steve took notes and planned out his conversation with Arianna about how she needed to get a lawyer of her own, not a conversation he was excited about.

Steve and Kono left their teammates to hold down the fort while they went to educate some high school students on the finer points of police work. After a not too brief phone call this morning, the pair decided that their regular clothes would suffice, Steve would talk about fieldwork and Kono would speak to all the office work that's required and would be more applicable to their audience.

Arianna met them at the front desk as promised. "You two have any questions before this circus starts?"

"I was wondering about the interpreter. Will they be trying to read my lips?" Kono asked.

"No, Sharon is a friend of mine and she's hearing. She'll be sitting off to the side with a camera on her. There will be a camera on you for our visually impaired students who are capable of seeing some," Arianna said, studying Kono. "There's no need to be nervous, they're just high school students."

"Is there a question and answer time?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, sorry I forgot about that. If you can leave three to four minutes at the end, that'd be great. Don't go over five though, gives the kids too much time to think of inappropriate questions," Arianna replied.

The detectives took their assigned seats on the auditorium stage and sat through a chef, a marine biologist and an account who had them both struggling to stay awake. Finally it was Steve's turn. He did really well up to the point where he left almost ten minutes for questions.

"Commander McGarrett are you related to Miss McG cause you look like you could be her older brother or her dad?" one extremely annoying student in the back asked.

"I, um, I," Steve stuttered, shifting from one foot to the other.

Luckily, the principal stepped in to save him. "Remember students, we need to keep our questions applicable to the subject. We don't want to make our guest uncomfortable with personal questions. Now if that's all for the Commander, let's welcome Officer Kono Kauakala to the podium."

"Told you not to leave too long for questions," Arianna whispered when he'd made it back stage.

"I'm not to worried about the kids. It's Kono that's going to be a dog with a bone," Steve muttered.

"Go ahead and tell her. In fact, as soon as you're girlfriend gets back, we should probably tell them all," Arianna declared.

Steve couldn't describe the feeling that coursed through him. "I'll deflect Kono until then, if you're sure."

"I'm sure," Arianna affirmed. "Thanks for doing this today."

"Why do I get the feeling, from the look on your face, there was an ulterior motive for asking?" Steve asked.

Arianna blushed. "There is this one student, that I'm trying to get through to. I thought listening to you and Kono, might help."

Steve wrapped her in a hug. "I hope it works." The pair stood in the embrace until Kono finished. They broke apart when she approached.

She wanted to confront them, but caught the look in her boss's eyes and decided to wait until later. Arianna thanked them again and left to herd kids to get book bags before the end of school.

Steve was surprised at the restraint Kono showed. She waited until they were in the truck before bringing up the student's comment. He already had his answer.

"So, boss, does that kid's question have any merit?" she queried.

"Kono, I can neither confirm nor deny," Steve stated in his best SEAL _if I tell you, I'll have to kill you_ voice.

"Fine, if that's the way you want to play it, but you know I'll get it out of you one way or another," she stated.

"Of that, I have no doubt," Steve stated dryly.

Back at HQ, Chin and Danny had whittled down their lists without out any progress. The two were taking a nominal break at the tech table, by brainstorming. Steve and Kono walked in on the lively debate.

"How about aliens?" Danny said.

"Aliens, that's as probable as my suggestion of men with time machines that you shot down," Chin protested.

"Okay, so no aliens, no time travelers, what else?" Danny continued.

"How about a secret paramilitary group? The could be doing the robberies to fund their take over the world plans," Chin said.

"You mean like those crazies in Montana? The ones that live like the apocalypse is imminent?"

"Well, yeah. How else are they going to fund themselves?" Chin said.

"Okay, put that on the possible list. Hey, did anyone look into past sales of used equipment from the military and police?" Danny threw out.

"We only checked into the last auction from HPD," Kono said, entering the conversation.

"Great, let's add that to the list too, maybe we should include vehicles that, with a little work, could look like SWAT trucks," Danny stated.

Steve, the curious bugger, pushed the list to the main screen for a better look. "The Aloha Girls, really guys?"

"Grace was telling me their last fund raiser didn't go so well and they were looking at ways to raise money for more camping trips," Danny admitted. "And if you'll notice, there is a strikethrough on that suggestion."

"You guys are getting desperate," Kono said rolling her eyes.

"We do have a couple of new ideas," Chin pointed out. "I've started a search for similar MO's on the mainland, so far nothing but who knows."

"We'll start on these tomorrow. I'm calling it an early day," Steve said. No one argued with him.

Steve headed for his pick up but was surprised to see Danny still standing beside the Camaro. "Hey, partner, I'd have thought you'd be long gone by now."

"Normally, I would, but I took a moment to call Amber to see if she had any plans for tonight," Danny responded.

"Does, she?"

"Unfortunately, yes. You got plans? Maybe we can go grab some beers or something," Danny suggested.

"So I'm your back-up plan," Steve stated.

Not missing the underlining quip, Danny replied, "Always need back-up."

"I've got something I've got to do right now, but how bout we kick back at my place say around six?" Steve proposed.

"Sounds good. Do I need to pick up some beer?"

"I've got a six pack in the fridge," Steve answered.

"I'll pick up pizza on the way then. The usual?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, sounds good. See you at six," Steve said climbing into the truck.

Danny waved as he climbed into his own vehicle. He had already decided after watching his partner that he'd stop for more beer as well. Whatever Steve had to do, it looked like a multiple beer night.

Steve pulled up in front of Arianna's to find his daughter digging out vines and bushes from the front of the house. She looked grateful for the excuse to take a break when she saw him get out of the truck.

"Hey! I wasn't expecting you," she said cheerfully.

"Sorry, I probably should've called," Steve said. His statement put him on the receiving end of a patented teenage look of _my parent is an idiot._

"You don't have to call to drop by. I'd like to think you're smart enought to know you're welcome any time," Arianna said, managing to tease and sound hurt at the same time.

"Well, it's always good to have confirmation," Steve side stepped. "I actually came over to give you a paper you lost the other day at my office."

Arianna motioned to the the porch chairs. "Oh, I didn't know I'd dropped anything. Want some ice tea?"

Steve sat down in a chair while Arianna plopped down in the other. He waited till she'd poured them both a drink before fishing the paper from his pocket. Handing it to her, he watched closely as she opened it up to see what it was.

She silently read it, refolded it and set it on the table then took a large gulp from her glass. "I don't suppose you didn't read it."

Steve bother to deny it. "I read it. I thought it was something I need to do."

"And the Ms. McGarrett didn't clue you in?"

"I'll admit after the phone conversation I witnessed that you won't talk about, I was curious. I don't like seeing you upset and if I can do something about it, I will," Steve confessed.

"Again, I appreciate the offers, but I'm a big girl," Arianna snorted.

"You're a hypocrite, you know that," Steve stated, irritated at his daughter.

"That's rich. A hypocrite?" she goaded.

"Yes, a hypocrite. You told me you wanted to know what it was like to have a real parent yet every time I try to be one, you get all prickly and refuse," Steve gritted out.

"Maybe I've decided that's not what I want," Arianna countered.

"Not what you want?! This morning you told me that we could tell every one that you're my daughter, not just a daughter of an old friend."

"Maybe I've changed my mind about that too," Arianna put out there.

Steve was really angry now. "You can't have it both ways, kamali'i wahine."

"Then maybe we go our separate ways!" Arianna shot back.

Steve took a calming breath. The angry, from the hip words, weren't going to help them any. "Where is all this coming from?" he asked slowly, hoping his face conveyed his sedate tone.

Arianna didn't answer immediately. She sat taking deep breaths, releasing them slowly. "I didn't think it would be this hard," she finally said.

"What would be hard?"

"Meeting you, getting to know you, accepting you're a real parent, all of it," Arianna gushed. "I'm so use to doing it all on my own."

Steve got out of his chair to kneel in front of her. Taking both of her hands in his, he squeezed them tightly and let go so he could sign and speak, not wanting her to miss what he had to say. "Arianna, we've had similar conversations and have gotten nowhere. How bout we make some promises to each other? You try to let me in while I try to gradually execute my parental role."

Arianna gave him a genuine smile. "One can take the man out of the Navy but one can't take the Navy out of the man. Execute? Really?!" She deflated a little. "I like the sound of that. I can't promise that it'll be easy. I've been told I'm a lot like my father."

Steve gave her a goofy grin. "Guess we'll have to take what we can get and keep going."

"Yeah."

"As for the letter, all I'm going to say is that I know a good lawyer if you need one," Steve offered.

"I'll keep that in mind, but I think I've got it about solved. It's not like Mom had much money anyway," Arianna relented.

"Good. Can I give you a hand for a little while? Danny and I have beers calling our names at six," Steve volunteered.

"I'm smart enough not to turn down free manual labor," Arianna said.

"Who said anything about free. I fully expect a home cooked meal at a time of my choosing in the future," Steve rejoined.

"I think I can handle that," she said, handing him a shovel.

Steve made it home with barely enough time to shower off the day before the familiar roar of the Camaro's engine could be heard from the drive. Danny, per usual, entered without knocking, carrying two pizza boxes in one hand and a six pack in the other.

"Yo, Steve! You want this stuff on the lanai?" he yelled.

Still trying to get dressed, Steve yelled back. "Yeah, the bin's on the counter and the ice is in the box." He finished pulling his shirt on and padded barefoot to join his friend.

"Career Day that taxing?" Danny asked.

"Huh," Steve grunted, not understanding the question.

"You've showered. Did speaking in front of a bunch of teenagers make you sweat that much you needed a shower?" Danny clarified, opening a bottle for each of them.

"Nah. I stopped by Arianna's. We talked then I helped her with some yard work," Steve said around a mouthful of pizza.

"How'd that work for you," Danny queried.

Still chewing, Steve answered, "We've come to the conclusion that we're both too stubborn for our own good."

"I could've told you that," Danny stated dryly.

Steve snorted and rolled his eyes. "We've also come to the conclusion that we're both trying too hard and yet not trying enough."

"Could've told you that too."

"Great, Danny. I'll keep that in mind the next time and we'll call on you to be our family counselor," Steve joked.

"I'd be cheaper than a professional," Danny said not rising to the bait.

"Yes you would be, partner," Steve agreed. "So how's Grace's research project going?"

Danny launched into a rant about how much homework kid's had these days and how the teacher's introduced them to topics that were above their maturity level. He wound down with Grace having problems finding first account sources and how he would probably end up humbling himself to ask Kono and Chin if they had any cousins that had been teenage delinquents. Oh, the horror of it all.

There isn't a sorrier sight in a police station than four highly trained task force members beating their heads against the hard surfaces of their offices in frustration. Even their far fetched theories failed them. At one point on Friday, Danny thought they'd caught a break when he found a purchase of a HPD armored truck by a former Army corporal, but when he and Steve visited the man, they found the truck buried to it's axles and serving it's retirement as a kid's playhouse. The military hadn't been forth coming with their lists. Steve decided if they didn't get answers by Monday morning, he was going to get the governor involved. Sheer tenacity kept everyone in the offices until five on Friday night.


	23. Chapter 23

Steve came in from his morning swim to a message from Mary telling him she had plans to be back from Maui later in the week and stay for the weekend. He'd made plans with Arianna to go surfing later in the day and he'd planned on filling in the time catching up on household chores. When his phone rang at 9:30, his "McGarrett," was gruffer than normal.

He sent a quick text to Arianna as he left the house. _Going 2 have 2 postpone. We've caught a case. Maybe 2morrow._

He had a reply by the time he'd started the truck. _no problem. STAY SAFE. no open sewers, k?!_

_I'll try my very best but no promises._

He called Danny next. "Hey, I'm on my way partner. No point in taking two vehicles."

"All right, but just so you know, it'll be the truck as the Camaro is running on fumes," Danny replied.

"I'll be there in ten," Steve said.

Even though they made good time getting to Waialua despite the weekend traffic, Kono (who'd been surfing on the North Shore) beat them to the scene. Pulling in behind her little red car, the partners got out and made their way through the police tape where Kono was speaking to a young couple. They patiently waited for her to turn the couple over to a uniformed officer.

"What we got?" Steve asked, surveying the car in the driveway of a house with it's driver's side door open and what looked like the contents of a purse scatter across the ground.

"At 9:15 this morning Karen Travers was heading out to do some shopping, but she didn't make it very far. The couple across the street were sitting on their porch when an older dark green Ford Escape pulled up, blocking the driveway. A guy jumped out, grabbed Mrs. Travers and shoved her into the backseat of the car. The neighbor said there were two guys. I've already got a BOLO out for the car, but there's no plates so it might be harder," Kono informed them.

"Karen Travers. Why do I know that name?" Danny wondered.

"It's because it's actually Councilwoman Karen Travers of District #2," Kono answered.

"So we have an abduction in broad day light," Steve stated. "Her family see or hear anything?"

"The husband heard the squeal of tires. He made it to the front door to see the car go around the corner," Kono answered.

"You think we're looking at a K'nR?" Danny asked to no one in particular.

"I don't know. According to the husband, they're your average middle class family."

"Okay, let's get the standard set up in the house for a ransom call. Kono, I want you to stay with the family and coordinate from here. Danny, get the uniforms canvassing the neighborhood, see if any one else saw something. I'm going to reinterview the husband and family, see if Karen's got any enemies, personal or professional. When Chin gets here have him…."

Steve was interrupted by an uniformed officer. "Commander McGarrett, 911 just received a call from a man claiming to have the victim and he wants to speak to the person in charge."

"Have it patched over and start a trace," Steve instructed. "This is Commander McGarret. Who am I speaking with?"

"I'm the man who's holding Councilwoman Travers," a gravelly disembodied voice replied.

"Well, I'm looking at a woman with short brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a flowered muumuu and sporting a scar on the left side of her neck," the voice answered.

Steve glanced at Kono for confirmation of the description. When she nodded he said, "Okay, I believe you. Why don't you tell me what you want so we can get Mrs. Travers home to her family?"

"Councilwoman Travers will be returned after Tuesday, unharmed, so long as you stay away," the voice informed them before the line went dead.

Steve glared at the phone. "Please tell me you got a trace."

"Sorry, Commander," was the apologetic reply.

"All right, so something is happening in the next four days that Karen has some type of influence on. It might be personal, but I'm betting that it has something to do with the city council," Danny claimed.

"I'm thinking you're right partner. Let's go talk to the husband, rule out the personal and then we'll talk to the other council member," Steve agreed. Seeing Chin pull up, Steve turned to Kono. "You and Chin start the uniforms on a canvass then head back to the palace and start arranging for the other council members."

"On it," Kono replied heading off Chin to follow through.

The partners found Mr. Travers sitting in his living room staring aimlessly at his surroundings. They made their introductions, startling the man.

"May we ask you a few more questions?" Danny asked gently.

"Of course but I told the other officer everything I saw," the stricken man replied.

"Mr. Travers, we received a call from the kidnappers," Steve informed.

"Oh, god. What do they want? We don't have a lot of money. I can raid the kids' college funds, but that wouldn't amount to much," Mr. Travers stammered.

"Here's the thing, Mr. Travers. The kidnappers didn't ask for money. They said your wife would be returned after Tuesday. Do you have any idea why they would want to hold her for four days?" Steve asked.

Steve's question threw the man. "You mean they don't want money?"

"No, they don't. The kidnappers are waiting for something to happen. Would you mind giving us a rundown of your wife's planned activities for the next four days?" Danny asked hoping to get the other man to focus.

"Yeah, of course," Mr Travers replied, pulling himself together. "Karen was going shopping this morning. We need groceries and the dry cleaning needs to be picked up. We're planning on grilling tonight and having a movie night with the kids. Oh, dear lord, what am I going to tell the kids? They'll be back from their aunt's this afternoon."

"Hopefully we'll have Mrs. Travers home by then, but if we don't, you tell them the truth or as much as they can handle," Danny answered.

"The rest of the schedule," Steve prompted.

"Um, on Sunday we are going to church then to my parent's house for an early lunch cause Karen has a partial shift starting at one at the boutique. We both have a full day's work on Monday and Tuesday. Alice has piano lessons and Paul has Scouts. Karen has a council meeting Tuesday evening," Travers continued.

"What do the two of you do for a living?" Steve asked.

"I manage the local grocery store and Karen works part time at Waves, a specialty boutique on the shore."

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Travers," Steve said, ending the interview.

"Please find my wife," Travers begged.

"We'll do everything we can to bring your wife home. Please remember that the abductors don't seem to have intentions towards hurting her," Danny assured.

"Thank you, so much, Detective," Mr. Travers whispered.

"Your welcome. We'll keep in touch."

The pair stopped outside the front door. "What in the hell could be so important at a city council meeting that it would spur someone into kidnapping a council member," Danny voiced.

"I have no idea. Let's get back to HQ and find out," Steve replied.

Kono already had a council person in her office and two waiting in the conference room guarded by an uniform when Steve and Danny got back to HQ. Even though it was Saturday, she'd managed to locate all the remaining council members. The three Five-0 officers spent the next several hours interviewing while Chin coordinated with HPD on the canvas info and BOLO leads.

Danny ushered the last interviewee out and rubbed his temples. "And that, lady and gentlemen, is why I don't get into politics."

"Tell me about it," Kono moaned. "I cant' see how anyone can get so enthused about new tourist signs and watering day restrictions."

"Let's not for get the increase fees for licensing a pet or how many mutts constitute a kennel," Steve chimed in. "You guys get anything worthwhile?"

"Everyone I talked with said basically the same thing. Karen's a nice person, easy to along with. She really cares about her constituents," Kono replied.

"Yeah, I got that too. As for Tuesday's meeting agenda, she's against the new signs, on the fence about the watering restrictions and for the kennel count change," Danny added.

"There's got to be something we're missing regarding the council," Steve stated.

"It's the only thing that ties in with the kidnapper's statement," Danny pointed out. "They are obviously trying to sway the vote on one of the three topics."

"So, which one?" Kono asked.

"Let's take each one separately," Steve suggested. "Start with the signs. Would her voting against it prevent the motion?"

"From what I gathered, she is the swing vote for all three agenda items," Kono told them.

"Okay, so we need to figure out who'd benefit if the vote went either way on each item," Danny declared.

"Right. Danny, since you know dogs, you take the fees and kennel. Kono, you want the watering restrictions?" Steve asked.

"Sure, why not," Kono snarked.

"That leaves me with the signs. Let's start digging people. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone will spot the car," Steve said, wishing it to be true.

At some point Chin returned to the office with no new leads, but he did bring food. It being the weekend really hindered their investigation. At various points, each one of the team left to track down someone who was out and about. Each time they returned, all they needed to do was shake their head to convey the trip was a bust. Eight o'clock rolled around and they were no closer to finding Karen than they were early.

"I'm calling it. We're getting no where," Steve stated.

"Normally, I'd disagree, but this time you're right. The kidnapper is stalling for time, with no current intention of hurting our victim. Maybe fresh eyes will help," Danny agreed. Tired nods concurred.

Steve reheated some leftovers while he sent a quick text to Arianna.

_Looks like I'm not going 2 make it tomorrow either. Still in the middle of a case._

He was climbing into bed when she replied. _Understand. Anything I can do for u?_

It wasn't until she asked that Steve remembered he was suppose to pick up Catherine tomorrow. _Now that you mention it. This is awkward._

_Out with it already. I'm sure I can do ur laundry if u dont mind pink boxers._

_What?! That's just wrong!_

_So what do u need then? :)_

_I promised I'd pick up Catherine from the base tomorrow. With the case, not sure if I can._

_Not a problem. Plan on me picking her up, send the details. Then if something changes u can let me kno. Bike or car?_

_Car. She'll have all her gear._

_Right. didnt think bout that. now get some sleep_

_u 2. Night_

_Nite_

He quickly conveyed the details then Steve fell into a dreamless sleep. Maybe things were getting better.

Sunday morning, Danny and Chin beat Steve to the office. Both were on the phones trying to catch people before they started their Sunday activities.

Kono showed, carrying pastries. At the men's expressions she squawked, "What? The guy I went to talk to lives around the block from the bakery."

"And your stop is truly appreciated," Danny said.

"You're too easy, Williams," Kono teased, handing him a danish.

"Never said I wasn't," Danny mumbled around a mouthful.

"Either of you get any where?" Steve asked around his own mouthful.

Chin made a point of finishing his bite before answering, "I've made it through the traffic cam footage. I can track the car until it gets to Kawailoa Rd. After Kawailoa Dr., there's no cameras. We've gotten nothing on the BOLO."

Danny wiped the crumbs from his shirt and took his turn. "Out of the two hundred and thirty-eight households in District #2 that have a current pet licenses, only forty-three would be affected by a new law that four or more animals would be considered a kennel. Out of those forty-three, I've written off twenty-eight of them through phone calls. Three of the remaining fifteen I haven't been able to get a hold of, despite numerous attempts. Now, keep in mind this only for her district. There's still the rest of the island."

"Mine's easy. Every individual household on the island," Kono said. "The big businesses that have lush lawns are either exempt do to size or have their own wells."

"So in essence, the entire damn island is our suspect," Steve growled. Three identical eye rolls answered him.

"Danny, let's head back to the Travers house. Maybe the guy has remembered something overnight that will help us," Steve said. Looking at the other two, he continued, "Start digging into Karen's personal life. Maybe this isn't about the council meeting."

"You really think that, Steve?" Chin questioned.

"No, but who knows. Stranger things have happened," Steve said. "We'll check out her place of work while we're out there."

"Sounds like a plan," Danny answered.

The Travers home was overrun with family and well meaning friends. Steve got mistaken for crazy cousin Tad and Danny, Tad's boyfriend, no less than five times before they managed to find the correct Mr. Travers and pull him out to the lanai to ask him more questions.

"Do you have news about Karen?" the man asked, anxiously.

"I'm sorry, we don't have anything new at this time. We're hoping you may have thought of something else that might help us," Danny replied.

"I can't, I just can't. I was awake all last night trying to come up with even a half-assed idea and I couldn't. Karen has no enemies. She gets along with everyone even when she's on the opposite side of an issue."

"Mr. Travers, do you know anyone who lives out on Kawailoa Rd?" Steve asked.

"I don't think so. There's not too many houses out that way, but no I'm sure I don't," he replied sounding despondent.

"That's okay, it was a long shot. We're going to go now, but rest assured, we're doing everything we can to find your wife," Steve soothed. "One more question though. What time was your wife scheduled to work today?"

"Karen's suppose to work from noon till three, but she needs to get there by eleven-thirty to help count out the drawer," Mr. Travers sobbed. "I didn't think to call the store and tell them."

"We're headed over there now. We'll convey the message for you," Steve said.

"Thank you. Please, officers, please find my wife," the distraught man begged.

"We'll do everything we can," Danny promised.

Parking in front of the still closed boutique, Steve and Danny made their way to knock on the door.

"We don't open till noon, sorry," a voice called from inside before Steve's knuckles made contact with the door.

"It's Five-0 we need to ask you some questions," Danny called out.

A young, heavily made-up woman appeared on the opposite side of the glass door. "Show me your badges."

When the men complied, she unlocked the door to usher them in. "What can I do for you fine gentlemen," she purred, giving them both a thorough once over.

"We need to ask some questions about an employee, Karen Travers. Is it possible you could contact the manager or owner for us," Danny said, ignoring the scrutiny.

"Yeah, sure," she replied, continuing to stare at them.

"Maybe sometime in the near future would be nice," Steve stated.

The woman chuckled. "I'm the owner. You can call me Kiki. What do you need to know about Karen?"

"Mrs. Travers was kidnapped from her home yesterday," Steve informed her.

"Oh, god. If I'd known I wouldn't have yanked your chains. What can I do to help? Karen's a good friend," Kiki gushed.

"Has there been any incidents between Karen and any customers lately?" Danny asked.

Kiki considered the question carefully. "Not in the store, face to face anyways."

"I take it there's been something not face to face," Danny pushed.

"Well, we get a lot of email orders and Karen's the one to take care of them," Kiki informed them.

"This is like pulling teeth," Danny whispered to Steve before saying, "and there was something in the emails?" loud enough for the store owner to hear.

"It might be easier if I show you," Kiki said while walking towards the back room. Sitting down behind the desk she made several clicks on the keyboard before turning the monitor so the men could see it. "Right here. There's two emails Karen saved because they made her nervous."

_ Ms. Travers, it would be in your best interest to vote against the new kennel requirement law. An Angry Voter._

_ Ms. Travers, we haven__'t received a reply from our last email. We would like confirmation that you are planning on voting 'no' . If we don't receive an email verifying this, drastic measures will need to be taken._

"Did she reply to either of the emails?" Steve asked.

"No, I don't think so," the owner replied.

"Would you mind if we have a tech log into your system to see if we can trace the origins of those email?" Danny questioned.

"You can take the whole laptop. I don't do anything online on Sundays and if it's for Karen, I'll make do without for however long you need it," Kiki responded.

"Thank you so much for your cooperation," Steve told her. "Danny, call Chin. Let him know we're on the way and have him get Charlie on standby if he can't follow this. Thank you again. We'll get the laptop back to you as quickly as we can."

Steve and Danny made their way out of the store trying to ignore the measured gazed of the store owner.

Once in the car Danny exclaimed, "I'm fairly certain she can tell me what color my boxers are and yours too for that matter."

"I'm thinking I need a shower. I feel used and dirty," Steve quipped.

"So it's looking like the kidnapping is to sway a vote after all," Danny said ignoring Steve's comment.

"It looks that way. Hopefully we can trace the emails," Steve replied.

Catherine searched the lobby for Steve's lanky form, her eyes widening when she spotted Arianna standing off to the side. Scanning again for Steve and not seeing him, she made her way over to where the younger woman stood. "Steve in the restroom?"

"No. He's not here. He's on a case and since he didn't want to leave you stranded, he asked me if I'd come in his place," Arianna said.

Not sure how to take this new development, Catherine muttered, "Thank you."

"I'm sorry, what did you say? I couldn't read your lips," Arianna said.

"I said thank you," Catherine repeated looking straight at the girl, smiling.

"You're welcome. Well, if you're ready, the car's this way," Arianna said cheerfully not at all fooled by the older woman's expression.

Popping the trunk so Catherine could stow her gear, Arianna climbed into the driver's seat to wait for her passenger. Once the woman was belted in, she started the engine then turned, "So where am I taking you? Steve's? Your place? The Palace?"

"My place please," Catherine responded icily, not bothering to disguise her tone. What she didn't realize is that her tone dictated her facial features and Arianna read it all.

"Okay, what's the address?" Arianna asked. Catherine told her and Arianna said, "I know the general area so you'll have to give me directions when we get closer. Tap the dash a block before I need to turn, once for right, twice for left. If I get too mixed up, I'll pull over and let you drive the rest of the way. That sound okay?"

"I think I can manage that," Cath snapped.

Arianna gave her a saccharin smile, put the car in gear and made her way off of base headed towards Catherine's house. Marveling at what a contradiction the woman next to her is, she decided to confront the issues when they stopped.

Despite Catherine's less than congenial attitude, the two woman made it to Catherine's rental house without incident. Before Arianna could even turn the engine off, Cath was undoing her belt and opening the door. The hand on her arm the only thing preventing her from getting out.

"Look, I get that you don't like me, but I'm hoping we can be civil," Arianna said.

"I've never said I don't like you," Catherine said.

"No, you're right, you haven't said anything like that, but it's true never the less," Arianna rejoined. "If you're worried that I'll take Steve away from you, you can let it go. I don't think of him that way."

"I'm not worried. I know how Steve feels about me," Catherine replied. "Now if you'll excuse me." She got out of the car and pulled her stuff from the trunk. Without so looking at Arianna again, she walked into her house.

Arianna watched the door close. "I'm not so sure you really do know how he feels," she said to the empty car. She sent a quick text to her dad.

_Packaged delivered. She's not 2 happy with u or me 4 that matter. U 4get to tell her I would b there in ur place?_

Arianna's text came through on their drive back. Steve tossed his phone to Danny. "Here, read that for me will you."

"What if it's something personal? What if it's a sext from Catherine?" Danny joked.

"First, you know everything about my personal life already and second, Catherine doesn't sext, says it makes her feel cheep," Steve smirked.

Danny nods his agreement and opens up the text app. Reading silently, he frowns at the message. "Steven, please tell me I'm not really reading what I'm currently reading."

"Okay, Danny, that doesn't even make sense," Steve said.

"Let me put it another way then. Please tell me you didn't send your attractive daughter, who no one knows is your daughter, to pick up your equally attractive girlfriend, who probably believes that you are cheating on her with said daughter, without telling the girlfriend about it first."

Steve's confused puppy face was hysterical. "Steve, did you forget to tell Catherine that Arianna would be picking her up instead of you?"

Steve blanched. "Shit!"

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Danny said. "Steve, why on earth would you think it was a good idea to send Arianna to pick up Catherine."

"What's wrong with it. Cath needed a ride and I didn't want her to have to grab a cab after coming off reserves and she doesn't think that I'm sleeping with Arianna," Steve defended himself.

"Uh, huh. All I can say is that I'm really glad I'm not going to be in your shoes when you see Catherine later," Danny said. "You want me to respond to your daughter?"

"Yeah, you probably should. Tell her I'll call her later," Steve admitted grudgingly.

Danny pulled up the keyboard while he composed the reply in his head.

_Arianna it's Danny replying for ur dimwitted father. He says thank u and Yes he did 4get and he is truly sorry. He'll make it up to u. I promise you._

The reply was quick. _Thx Uncle Danny. Tell him alls 4given. Catherine may not b so easy though_

_Will do. He says he'll call you later._

_Good. B Safe._

"Your child says you are forgiven and to be safe," Danny relayed. Steve grinned.

Chin was waiting for them. He plugged the laptop into the main computer and immediately started searching. Danny pulled out a piece of paper with passwords on it, handing it to him before he could ask.

"We figure out who sent these, we might have our kidnappers and I'm aware that I'm stating the obvious," Danny said.

Reading over Chin's shoulder, Kono snorted. "So this is really about how many dogs you can own?"

"The law's about how many are on your property not how many you own. We might be looking at someone who's running an animal boarding center without permits," Danny theorized.

"Got it," Chin said. "Both email were sent from a home computer at 601 Kawailoa Rd."

Kono was already inputting the information. "The property is owned by Kai and Tua Conway."

"What do we know about these guys?" Steve asked.

"Pulling it up now," Kono returned. "Kai and Tua Conway, brothers, owned the place since 2007. There's been multiple complaints with HPD for barking dogs, but no charges filed."

"I say we go pay the Conway brothers a visit," Steve said, grabbing his gear.

"We wanna call for back up?" Danny asked.

"Let's make sure we've got the right guys first and that this is where there holding Karen."

"So this is reconnaissance only," Danny stated. Steve didn't bother to answer.

It was easy enough to find the property, but they couldn't see anything from the road as everything was set back some distance. Leaving the cars parked down the aways from the drive, the guys stealthily made their way towards the buildings, leaving Kono to keep an eye out incase their suspects weren't there and decided to return. She was also caretaker of the warrant that had come in via email during their drive.

The inhabited area consisted of five buildings, a moderate sized house, a detached garage, two decent sized, side by side cement buildings and a large barn. Splitting up, Steve took the house, Chin the garage and Danny the cement buildings. They'd regroup and check the barn together if needed.

Steve made his way to the side of the house, using the bushes growing there as cover. Peering inside the window, he found their two suspects sitting on a tattered couch playing video games. Conveying this to the team, he hunkered down to wait for the others to report in.

"Garage is clear. There's a green Ford Escape in the bay," Chin whispered into his com.

"I've found Karen Travers. The son-of-a-bitches have her locked in a built in dog cage. She looks unharmed. There's about eight dogs in other cages in the rooms." Danny's disgust wasn't disguised.

"Kono, call for back up. I'll keep an eye on our suspects. Danny you and Chin see if you can get into that building." Steve slipped in the mud and banged into the house at that moment. Quickly regaining his balance, he plastered himself to the wall, trying to stay out of sight as one of the brothers stuck his head on the window looking for the source of the sound. Unfortunately, not all the dogs were kenneled. Two started barking from inside the house.

"Guys, we got trouble. They're letting the dogs out," Steve relayed.

"I swear to god, Steve if you start singing, I'm going to hand in my resignation the minute we get out of this mess," Danny grumbled.

"I meant dogs from the house, Danny. Real dogs with claws and teeth," Steve chided.

"Well, hell, why didn't you just say so," Danny replied. "Don't hesitate to shoot them if they come after you."

During the banter, Chin and Danny made their way to the side of house opposite to Steve's position. "Let's give them multiple targets," Chin called out. The three men with guns drawn, stepped out of hiding as the door opened. "Five-0. Call off the dogs! Hands up!" they yelled as one.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Steve and Chin opened fire at the hundred pound, snarly animals charging at them. A single shot from each stopped the threat. "Ah man, you killed my dogs," the man on the porched moaned.

"That's the least of your worries. Hands up! You're under arrest for the kidnapping of Karen Travers!" Steve barked.

The second brother joined them at this point. "We weren't going to hurt her," he explained.

Chin was busy zip tying their hands so Danny asked, "Where are the keys?"

"In my pocket," the idiot replied.

Chin fished the keys out and threw them to Danny. "I got these guys. You go get Karen."

It took three tries to get the correct key to open the main door. Once inside, the cacophony that greeted them was almost overwhelming. Danny let out an ear rupturing whistle followed by a bellowed, "Shut! Up!" It worked. Every dog fell silent.

Steve walked over to Karen's cage. "Karen, it's okay. We're the police. We're going to get you out of here."

"Thank you," the woman sobbed.

Steve studied the locking mechanism. "Danny these are controlled electronically. Find the box and push the release button."

Danny quickly found the box and his voice came over the comms, "Chin, ask one of those bozos which lock unlocks Karen's cell because these are labeled and I'd really hate open the wrong one."

"He says it's the first one on the right," Chin said.

"Oh, he does, does he? Steve, is there any empty cages?" Danny called out.

"Three. The one closest to you, across from Karen and to the east one and the fourth one in on my side. Why?" Steve answered.

"Do me a favor, draw your gun and be ready to fire of the off chance I'm wrong. Let me know when you're ready," Danny replied.

"Okay, I'm set but why am I doing this?" Steve asked again.

"Cause I didn't give those two enough credit. They were going to have me release all these friendly canines and wouldn't that have been a treat," Danny answered. "On three. One. Two. Three."

The lock on the empty cage across from Karen buzzed. "Anything," Danny called.

"That was the empty one on the other side," Steve replied.

"Okay. Let's try this again. Ready?"

"Go for it," Steve said.

This time the lock on Karen's cage popped open. "That's the one partner," Steve said holstering his weapon. He gathered the traumatized woman into his arms and helped her out of the building, glimpsing at the control panel on the way out. HPD, animal control and EMT's were on site. He turned Karen over to one of the waiting techs and instructed a HPD officer to take her statement. He turned to find Danny surveying the property.

"So these guys were running an illegal boarding kennel? That's what this is all about?" Kono asked as she joined the guys.

"Seems like it," Chin answered.

"Nah, I don't think so. Follow me," Danny instructed strutting off towards the one building they hadn't had time to check out. Steve put on his _confused face_ and followed. Chin and Kono trailed behind.

Chin helped Danny pull back the heavy sliding door to reveal what Danny had suspected. Each of the team slowly stepped into the building.

"What is this?" Kono asked.

"It's an arena for dog fighting," Danny replied, voice laden with disgust. "If I'm not mistaken and I truly hope I am, there's a looser's pit around back."

"Do I want to know what that is?" she asked hesitantly.

"No, you don't," Danny stated.

Steve walked with him to the other end of the barn. Kono watched as Danny opened the door and stuck his head through. Pulling back, he said something to Steve too low for her to hear. The pair rejoined their teammates.

"We need to tell animal control that they'll need hazmat suits," Steve said, moving towards the exit.

They found their bad guys sitting on the ground, guarded by HPD, babbling about their precious dogs. It was all Danny could not kick both of them in the gut. "Shut up! You can't be that worried about your dogs. You had to have known how this would end, but I don't think you thought it through. All those innocent animals you turned into killers are going to be put down. Yeah, you really care, you schmucks." He didn't resist kicking dirt on the two before he walked away.

Danny sank into the passenger seat to wait for Steve to finish up. His stomach was turning and breakfast was threatening to make a reappearance. People disgusted him. He may not believe in a higher power, but he did believe in hell and for him, there was an extra special place in the pit for those who hurt children and animals, those who can't defend themselves.

Steve silently climbed in to the car, keeping a wary eye on his partner. "You okay," he asked hesitantly, not really wanting to set the man off.

"Yeah, I'm good," Danny sighed. "What do you say after the interrogations we let the rest of the paperwork go till morning this time?"

"I like the way you think," Steve replied putting the car into drive and pulling onto the road. After a few minutes he asked, "Hey, how'd you know the command to shut the dogs up? That was impressive."

"Thanks, but I tried the first words that came to mind. I figured those two idiots looked like the types to use simple words."

"Well, it worked. I do have a favor though," Steve said.

"Yeah, what's that?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't ever use that whistle in on of the interrogation rooms. It might just blow an eardrum," Steve razzed.

Danny laughed. "Oh, that's rich coming from the man who used an air horn."

"True. I'd forgot about that one," Steve laughed in return.

"So what are you going to do about Catherine?" Danny questioned.

"I don't know. Things were strained between us before Arianna came along. They've gotten worse. I'm hoping telling Cath will help," Steve sighed.

"When you gonna do that?"

"This Friday. I'm going to have another barbecue and I'll tell her before that so she's not blind sided."

"Who's all going to be there?" Danny asked.

"I figure ohana. Mary and Joan are suppose to be here later this week. I might invite Lou too. You got Grace for that weekend? She could come too since she already knows."

"Yeah, I do. Let me know what I can do to help," Danny offered knowing Steve would catch the underlying implication.

"Thanks, Danno, I will," Steve said.

In the face of Danny's blatant repugnance, their perpetrators admitted to kidnapping Councilwoman Travers, but they refused to confess to the dog fighting. Five-0 turned that part over to HPD follow through.

Steve leaned against his truck, phone in hand. He was tired and still covered in mud from his slip. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with a pissed off woman and he had two potentials. He was trying to decide if flipping a coin was too childish when Chin slapped the fender to get his attention.

"Hey, brah, you seem really lost in thought there," Chin chided.

Steve did his best to school his face, but failed miserably if Chin's grin was anything to go by. "Anything I can help with," Chin offered.

"Nah. I kinda screwed up and now it's a matter of choosing which punishment to take first," Steve muttered.

"Ah, a no win situation, huh?" Chin asked.

"Pretty much. I forgot to tell Catherine I was sending Arianna to pick her up this afternoon. It didn't go so well according to Arianna's text."

"Oh, man. Sorry. Glad I'm not you, but if you want a bit of advice, I'd call Catherine first and smooth things over. Arianna doesn't see the type to stay upset for long. She's probably already forgiven you."

"Thanks, Chin. I'll see you in the morning," Steve said, already dialing his phone. It went straight to voicemail. "Hey Cath, sorry I wasn't there in person this afternoon. I should've called to let you know. I don't have an excuse for not doing so other than I got distracted by the case. Give me a call when you get this. Maybe we can grab dinner. If not, I'll see you in the morning."

Chin was correct, Arianna had already gotten past his mistake. His call to his daughter was fun and light hearted. He ended it with promising to try to get together the first part of the week to plan the barbecue. He also remembered to tell her about Mary. She said she was excited to meet her aunt. They ended the call with, "Love you, kiddo." "Love you too."

Steve went home to an empty house. For the first time in a while, he was content with the quiet. Not that he'd minded having Catherine around or Jerry for that matter, but there was a peacefulness in him despite his relationship issues. He felt that maybe things were going to be okay.


	24. Chapter 24

Danny arrived early Monday morning to find Steve already elbow deep in paperwork. "Wow, buddy! Never seen you so eager to fill out forms."

"I don't know, Danny. I woke up with extra energy this morning so I swam a couple of extra miles then decided to give everyone a break and see if I could get the piles down to a manageable level before the day really gets started," Steve replied, grinning.

"I gotta say, I like this side of you. How about you hand me that pile and maybe we can get this done before Chin, Catherine and Kono arrive," Danny suggested.

Steve handed over the pile and both men set to work. Ninety minutes later Steve scrawled his signature on the last sheet, closing the folder with a firm smack. He sauntered over to Danny's office to find his partner on the phone with Grace. He made to move away, but Danny waved him in. "Yes, Monkey, you can go to a sleepover on Friday, but I'll be picking you up before lunch because we're going to Uncle Steve's later on….. No….. Grace, I'm sorry, but you are not going to a movie unsupervised…. I'm not Katie's father….. Grace, don't argue… Danno loves you too."

Hanging up, Danny raised his eyes to his partner. "What's up?"

"Nothing. I thought we could run out and grab some pancakes and coffee," Steve said.

Danny stood up and pushed his chair back. "I'm always up for pancakes. Let's go."

They ran into Chin on their way out. Informing him of their plans, Steve told him to call if they were needed otherwise they'd be back in an hour or so. Chin asked them to bring him a muffin when they returned. Steve knew that the two other men knew his real motivation to not be in the office when Catherine came in.

They were arguing over tip when Chin called to inform they there'd been another armored car robbery. This one was a little closer to town out on Kamehameha Hwy. Telling him they'd meet the team there, both men threw down some bills. Their favorite waitress made a thirty-two percent tip.

The whole team arrived roughly at the same time. They each split up to do what they individually do best. Steve talked to the initial officer on scene, Danny and Catherine went to interview the victims and Chin, with Kono, began going over the crime scene.

Danny and Catherine waited patiently while the EMT's took care of the guards. "How was your survivalist training weeks?" Danny asked Cath, teasingly.

"Don't know how much survivalist training I got as I was fed three squares a day and had a nice bed to sink into each night. It was okay," she answered.

Danny scanned the horizon to kill time, finally he spoke again, "Take down a boat load of terrorists cells, then."

Catherine laughed. "Danny, you know if I did, I won't be able to tell you."

"Yeah, yeah, neither confirm nor deny, yada, yada. I'll comfort myself in my in the assumed knowledge that you were out there keeping the world safe for friends and family," Danny kidded.

"Ahh, I didn't know you trusted me so much, Danny. I'm honored," Catherine replied, not really joking.

"Yeah, well, it's nice to know there are sane persons out there on those big battleships, that not all of them are as crazy and impulsive as our fearless leader," Danny snarked.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Catherine stated.

"It was meant as one," Danny said sincerely. He looked over to the ambulances, noticing one of the guards had been released. "Let's see what he has to say."

Steve joined Chin when he was finished speaking with the officer on scene. "What have we got?"

"Well, it's definitely the same crew, the cameras were removed with a blow torch, the recorder and all video gone and the bags have been sliced from the bottom."

The two men watched the ambulance pull away, lights flashing. "But they're getting cockier. They've become more violent," Steve said.

"They are at that," Chin replied as the second ambulance pulled out with it's lights going as well.

Danny and Catherine joined. "We could only talk to the one guard. EMT's say the other two will make it though."

"The guy we spoke to was the rear guard. He said the door was opened and three fully dressed SWAT members stood there. They pulled him out and knocked him over the head. When he came to all the bags were empty, piled on the ground. He went to find the other two and call for help. The other guards were about fifty down the road, unconscious. All the radios and personal cell phones were gone," Catherine relayed.

"Who called it in?" Kono asked.

"The guard waved down a passing motorist about twenty minutes or so after he came too," Danny said.

"According to the officer the call came in around six-thirty. Do we know how long the guy was out?" Steve asked.

"He said they usually pass this area between five and five-fifteen depending on how long each stop takes," Danny answered.

"So this is the end of their run," Chin observed.

"Yes, they were fully stocked, so to speak," Danny confirmed.

"So, the guy was out for forty minutes or so," Steve calculated. "Alright, Catherine, you and Kono go to the hospital. See if we can get statements from the other two guards. We'll head back, check traffic cams etc. Hopefully CSU can pull something this time."

Danny and Chin went to the tech table to see what they could pull from traffic cams, check the whereabouts of the current on duty SWAT team, basically to do what they've already done for the first two heists.

Steve went into his office to call Grover. "Hey, Lou. don't mean to get you up so early."

"Save it McGarrett, I've already heard," Lou grumbled.

"Lou, I gotta ask again. Is there anyone on your team you might even have a smidgen of a doubt about?"

"I've been racking my brain, trying to come up with a single name and I can't," Lou admitted. "Have you looked into similar cases on the mainland?"

"Yeah, we ran them after the second heist. Nothing. That's not saying these guys couldn't be from the mainland though. It's the truck that's got us puzzled," Steve replied.

"What about similar types of trucks?" Lou suggested.

"We've been looking into that too, but the kidnapping took precedence," Steve answered. "We'll definitely follow through with it."

"I wish I could be more help," Lou said.

"I wish I could ask you to," Steve affirmed.

"Hey McGarrett, keep me posted though, kay," Lou requested.

"Will do, Lou," Steve said.

Steve grabbed a cup of copy then joined Chin and Danny. "We got anything yet?"

"Well, Danny found that SWAT was inactive at the time of the heist so they are accounted for. I've pulled the footage for the first traffic cam in both directions of the Kamehameha from the heist. We were just getting ready to go through it," Chin informed him.

Danny was unusually quiet, rubbing his hand back and forth over his jaw.

"Alright, partner, spill, What's running through that detective's brain?" Steve ordered.

Danny gave him a concentrated glare. "I'm thinking we should put some heat on these guys."

"You've obviously got something in mind. Care to share with the class?" Steve chided.

"Well, I know it would eat up a large amount of someone's time fielding and weeding out calls not to mention putting the real SWAT teams on the spot, but it might be worth it. I think we should put out a hotline number for anyone who's seen a SWAT vehicle to call in and report it. We'll know the valid ones as we only have two true trucks. We can couch it as an awareness exercise," Danny said. "I don't know, just a thought."

"That's a really good idea, Danny. No wonder how you made detective," Steve praised.

"Nice, buddy," Danny replied.

"No, I mean it. I'll get Catherine on it when she and Kono get back."

"Maybe she can get a couple of academy cadets to man the line. Say for extra credit or something," Chin added.

"It's a plan. I'll call Lou give him a heads up and get his permission while you pull up the footage so we can see if we can find out where these guys went," Steve said.

While the boss was briefly occupied, Danny had another thought occur to him. "Hey Chin, can you also pull up a map with the locations pinned?" he asked.

"Sure thing," Chin replied, quickly doing both requests. "What are you thinking?"

"I just wanted to verify something. They're getting progressively closer to Honolulu," Danny pointed out.

"They are definitely upping their game, first with the violence and now with location," Chin said. "Maybe these are test runs for something bigger planned in the city?"

"Let's hope not or that we catch them before it happens," Danny stated. "Okay, start the video. I'll watch this screen, you can share the other when Steve gets back."

Chin cued the videos and the two watched intently for a few minutes till Steve rejoined them. They both looked at him expectantly.

"He's not happy about it, but he finally agreed. He wants to catch these bastards as bad as we do. He'll have HPD cover everything they can so that real, cases don't get interfered with, but he'll send them out on periodic circuits for visibility until we find these guys," Steve stated.

"Let's hope it's soon then," Chin said starting the videos again.

After fifteen minutes, Danny reached over and pushed the fast forward on his once to speed things along. Chin did the same a minute later. They studied the videos till they were about an hour after the crime had been called in, nothing.

"How in the hell could they not pass by either camera," Steve exclaimed. "There's not that many roads off of that section."

"They had to at some point unless there base camp is along that stretch, which seems highly unlikely," Chin said.

Catherine and Kono chose that moment to breeze through the doors. The men looked up with hopeful expressions.

Kono shook her head. "We've got nothing new. The driver is still unconscious and they don't expect him to wake up for a few days. The second guard reiterated the story from the first two heists except for the beatings; SWAT pulls them over, tear gas, duct taped mouths."

"What the hell. These guys ghosts or something," Danny lamented.

Everyone stared at the blond man. "Ghosts? That's rich coming from you, Danno," Steve deadpanned.

"Yeah, well, they're really starting to piss me off. Chin, send me the video. They've got to have passed by at some point," Danny said.

"You want both of them?" Chin asked.

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Hang on. Are you looking a the traffic cams? That's a lot of footage. I'll take one. It'll make it go faster," Catherine offered.

"Actually, why don't you send it to Kono. I've got something for you Catherine. Chin'll help you set up," Steve said.

Steve explained Danny's plan to Catherine while Chin sent the videos and started the process to get a hotline. Danny and Kono retired to their offices, detouring to the coffee machine first, to settle in to watch their respective videos.

With Catherine and Chin going to HPD to set up their plan and Danny and Kono occupied, Steve found himself at a loose end. He pulled up one of the various lists they'd been working from and started dialing. After a while, his neck and backed ached from sitting too long. He stood up, moving around to the front of his desk, he did a few stretches and twists to ease the pain. That complete, he checked on his team to see them still glued to their monitors, presumably making their tedious way through the footage and not playing Solitaire. Sinking back into his chair, he decided to call Arianna, intending to leave a message. He was surprised when she answered.

"Hey. This is a nice surprise," she answered.

"Yeah. I didn't expect you to answer. I thought you'd be in class."

"Normally I am, but today they have advisory so I have a thirty minute break. What's up."

"I was just wondering if you'd want to catch some waves tonight? We've talked about surfing together, but we've not made it yet," Steve said.

"Shouldn't you be spending time with Catherine? She's been gone for two weeks."

Steve silence spoke volumes. "Oh, practicing the avoidance technique, huh? Okay, I'll aide and abet. What time and where?" Arianna asked.

They arranged to meet after supper at one of Steve's favorite spots and Arianna told him a funny story about one of her fellow teachers before they ended the call. He was still chuckling when Kono called out, "Hey, guys! I've got something!"

Danny and Steve made a beeline for her office. Maybe they'd finally got a break on this case.

"Here, we've got them heading into town. I've tracked them to the outskirts. I've got the next set of cams being sent to the main screen. It's going to take all three of us to track them once they hit the city limits," Kono said excitedly.

"Let's go hunting," Steve said with a touch of menace.

The three screens soon showed the various scenes of potential directions for their fake SWAT truck. The views had just switched as Kono found them on her section when Chin called with an update.

Steve listened intently. Ending the call he reached over the tech table, splitting the screen he'd been watching so he could pull up one of the local stations. "Danny's notice is going to be on in about ten minutes. Then it'll be repeated at noon, mid-day, the evening news and the late news if needed."

Sure enough, the disembodied voice of a computer started talking, "We interrupt your regularly scheduled programing with this important bulletin. Programing will resume momentarily."

Catherine's composed smiling face filled the screen. "Residents of Oahu, Five-0 along with HPD and HPD SWAT are conducting an awareness exercise. For the next five days if you spot one of our SWAT trucks anywhere on the island (a picture appeared in the corner of the screen of a real SWAT vehicle) we would like you call the number showing on the bottom of your screen. We would like you to give time and location only. We are conducting this test to increase the awareness of the residents to their surroundings. We thank you for your participation. Please remember to call only if you see a SWAT truck, standard HPD cruisers are not included in this test. Thank you again."

"We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."

"Wow! Catherine may have a second career in newscasting. That was, well, that was eloquent," Danny exclaimed.

"She did do a good job," Steve acknowledged. "Now pray that it works."

Going back to their videos, the three continued to watch until Steve yelled, "Got them. They pulled into a storage facility near Diamond Head. I'll fast forward to current time. Help me watch to see if they exit." When nobody came out, Steve instructed, "Kono, call for a warrant."

Steve parked the Camaro one building over, Kono pulling in behind them. Suited up, Steve lead the way over to the building. It didn't take long to discover the building was empty except for a rather large rat that Danny would swear to later as being as big as a raccoon. Steve's phone had been vibrating in his pocket since they'd left the cars and he finally looked at it while he was leaning against the hood of the Camaro as Danny put the tac vests away.

"Hey, Chin. Sorry but we were conducting a worthless raid."

"We've got some hits already. A number of calls came in saying they'd seen the truck near Diamond Head," Chin said.

"One of them wouldn't happen to be a storage facility on Maunaloa Ave. would it?"

"How'd you know?" Chin asked dumbfounded.

"Cause it's a bust. The place is abandoned," Steve answered.

"We'll keep on it," Chin said.

"We'll take shifts. I'll send Kono over in a while to replace you, then Danny can replace Catherine after a while. I'll handle the late shift on my own. If you get any more leads, see if you can get HPD to send the closest unit to investigate first," Steve informed the older man.

"Okay. I'll let Catherine know. We'll keep you posted," Chin replied.

Steve sighed. He knew exactly what he was doing, he'd all but admitted it with Arianna. He couldn't really blame Billy for this, ever since Catherine had retired, things between them had been different. Billy's death had only exasperated the situation. Arianna was only a minor complication. He knew he needed to talk to Catherine sooner rather than later. He had barely mentally steeled himself to do it on Saturday after the barbecue when Danny plopped his but down next to him.

"Chin got anything yet?" Danny asked.

"Yep. You're looking at it," Steve said tiredly.

"You've got to be kidding me. Someone saw the truck enter this building? They didn't happen to see it leave again did they. Cause you know, that would be like extremely helpful," Danny ranted, clearly annoyed.

"Not that he told me," Steve sighed. "Come on, I'm hungry. I'm paying," he offered pulling out his wallet before Danny could even form the words.

"Look at you. Fatherhood has made you responsible," Danny snarked. "I'll get Kono."

The team ended up at a Korean place not too far from Grace's school. Steve claimed it had the best bulgogi and hoe on the island. Danny and Kono took him at his word especially after he compared it to a couple of places in Korea he'd eaten at.

While they ate, Steve filled them in on the plan to cover the hotline for the remainder of the day. He make arrangements for tomorrow while he was there later to night.

Back at HQ, Steve found a request to join the governor at his earliest possible convenience. His teammates wished him luck, silently thanking their luck it wasn't them who had to soothe the politician. It definitely wasn't one of the benefits of being an elite task force.

Steve made it back in time to catch Danny before his shift on the hotline. "What did our illustrious head honcho want this time?" Danny asked while shutting down his computer.

"Not much. Wanted to give me the plans for the conference next month so we can suggest security. He actually congratulated us rather you for thinking outside the box with the 'awareness test'," Steve said.

"You mean he wasn't mad? Well, that's good. Anything I need to pass on to the others?" Danny offered.

"Don't think so. I'll be there later," Steve replied.

"You and Catherine have plans for tonight?"

"Nah. I'm meeting Arianna for some surfing."

"Huh."

"Huh? What's that mean?" Steve asked with a touch of paranoia.

"Huh, means just that, huh, Steven," Danny said.

"Okay then. See you later, I guess," Steve said moving away.

"Yeah, see you later. That is if your girlfriend doesn't track you down and kill you for avoiding her. You're not fooling anyone, buddy," Danny shouted at his friend's retreating back.

Arianna was waiting for him when he made it to Tank Traps on Mamala Bay. She was casually leaning against her car, chatting and signing with a couple of guys Steve guessed were locals. He couldn't resist. Walking up to her side to catch her eye, he slipped an arm around her and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "Hey, huapala, sorry I'm so late."

The two boys quickly made their excuses, walking hurriedly away. Arianna rounded on him, "You have a list of convents in your wallet that you've been secretly checking out, don't you?"

Steve grinned. "Yes I do. I've actually got it narrowed down to six. One of them is in France. Maybe you should start brushing up on your French sign language."

Arianna responded by smacking her board and heading for the waves. Steve noticed the guys, who hadn't moved too far away, appreciatively watched her progress. He called out to them, "Keep your eyes in your heads, boys. My daughter's out of your class," and jogged to catch up with her.

The pair road the waves, enjoying each other's company. Even though she knew how to surf, Arianna freely admitted she was out of practice and gratefully accepted the few pointers Steve threw her way. It had been decided they'd make one last run before calling it when a voice called from down the beach, "Arianna McGarrett, is that you?"

Arianna had her back to the voice, so Steve said, "Someone is calling you," pointing over her shoulder.

She turned around and groaned at the frantically waving figure quickly approaching. She glanced at Steve and signed, "Help."

"Arianna! It's so good to see you!" the bubbly woman exclaimed at volume.

Steve caught on when Arianna turned to him like she was waiting for him to interpret. He did, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud.

"It's good to see you too, Melly," Arianna continued to sign only.

The confused expression that crossed the other woman's face was priceless. When Steve translated, the dawn of understanding took it's place. "Oh, that's right! You're deaf!" she said even louder.

"It doesn't matter how loud you talk, she's not going to understand you," Steve said as he signed for Arianna.

The woman didn't even blink. "Who's this wonderful man you've got? So considerate to help you out."

Despite his feelings otherwise, he signed the message as best as he could.

Arianna choked on her own laughter. "Melly, quit eyeing my father like he's a side of beef, he's taken," she replied, speaking and signing.

"I'm not. I would never," Melly sputtered.

Arianna truly had to look at Steve for interpretation in order to reply, "Melly, on any given day of the week you wouldn't wave from the next seat let alone trek across the sand to say 'Hi' to me unless there was eye candy around. Now please go back to you're long suffering husband and give him my condolences."

It was comical the way Melly stomped away in indignation. Arianna sighed, turning to Steve to receive her reprimand.

"Side of beef and eye candy? You couldn't have come up with some better descriptions?" Steve asked, one eyebrow raised to emphasize his point.

"When talking to Melly, you have to use words she understands," she replied

"So, should I be packing my bags for a monastery?" Steve ribbed.

"I somehow don't think they'd let you in," she countered.

Steve's reply was to scoop her up and throw her over his shoulder so he could dump her in the surf. Arianna squealed the whole time causing the others on the beach to smile at their antics. There were some howls of laughter when she came up next to him, managing to get him at the right angle to dunk him.

Steve came up sputtering, much like Melly. Arianna was already make a fast retreat to the beach. He chased her back to their towels and boards, catching her and swinging her high before dropping her butt on the sand.

"So not an officer and a gentleman then," she giggled grabbing her towel to dry office.

"All's fair in love, war and obnoxious daughters," Steve declared.

"I'm not so sure that's how the saying really goes."

"Close enough. Thanks for coming out with me. I needed this," Steve said, helping her to her feet.

"Not a problem. Are you and Catherine okay?" Arianna whispered.

Steve rubbed the back of his neck, torn as how to respond. Like Danny, he chose honesty with his daughter. "I'm not sure. We're kinda going through a rough patch right now."

"Is it because of me? If it is, I'll do whatever you want to rectify it," Arianna stated.

Hearing what she didn't say, Steve assured her, "It's not you. We've been having issues for a while now."

"Okay, if you say so, but still I'll...well I'll do whatever you need," Arianna offered again.

"Telling everyone will help and you already are," Steve responded giving her a hug. "Sorry I've got head back to work."

"It's okay. I've got tests to grade. Stay safe, girls need their daddies you know," Arianna said.

Steve overheard an older man say, "I wish I was that close with our daughter," as he followed Arianna to the cars. He couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face.

Despite their best efforts, the tip line was a bust. They'd worked out a schedule with Duke so one of them was manning the lines with the help of cadets during the day and a second and third shift officer would take over at night.


	25. Chapter 25

Tuesday, when they weren't manning the phones, the team spent their time alternating between paperwork, more phone calls and being interviewed by ADA Kioki. Oh, joy. Kioki was assigned to the Davis murder case which should have been a cakewalk, but the Blues Brothers wanna be's plead innocent. They were even talking about suing Steve and Danny for the pain, suffering and humiliation they endured due to their tumble into the cesspool.

Danny plopped himself on Steve's office couch, twisting his neck back and forth until he had a satisfying 'Pop'. "Man, I know that guy's got a great conviction rate, but damn, he can really push the envelope."

"I know. I started counting and he asked me the same question nine times. You shouldn't pop your neck like that, it isn't good for it," Steve said in sympathy.

"What're you, my mother? Next you'll be telling not to pop my knuckles and to brush my teeth."

"Now that you mention it, Danno, you are kinda getting gorilla knuckles and I can still smell the onions you had at lunch."

"You are seriously... Well, you're something else," Danny muttered.

"That's the best you got, Danno? You are not on your A game today," Steve teased.

"No, I'm not. These heists have got me laying awake at night trying to come up with anything useful and to top it off, Grace has decided that she needs music to sleep by which wouldn't be so bad but it's Miley Cyrus," Danny said.

"I have one word for you, pal, infomercial," Steve rejoined.

"Point. Maybe I'll dig out those black head phones you gave me. Let her use them," Danny said. "You and Catherine talking yet?"

"We talked some this morning," Steve admitted.

"And..."

"And what? It's complicated," Steve defended.

"You've been saying that from the get go, babe. Don't you think it's time to un-complicate things?"

"Yeah. I'm going to talk to her on Saturday after the barbecue. I want her to have all the info so we can clear everything," Steve said.

"She's a great girl, Steve. She deserves the best."

"Don't you think I already know that, Danny. I've known that from the beginning."

"I'm sure you have but I think is that you're not sure if you want to give it to her," Danny stated.

"I do love her, Danny," Steve admitted

"Sometimes love isn't enough, babe. Trust me if it was, Rachel and I would still be together," Danny said quietly, then louder, "Now if you'll excuse me. It's my turn on the tip line. Maybe you shouldn't wait till Saturday." Danny left that as his parting shot.

Steve waited in his office for Catherine to come back from her shift. She stuck her head in the door to let him know she was back.

"Thanks, Cath. Can we talk a minute," Steve asked.

"Is this business or personal, cause if it's personal I'd rather not talk here in the offices," Catherine replied.

"It'll only take a minute. Please."

Steve looked hopeful she couldn't resist. "Okay, what?"

"I think we really need to talk. If there's nothing going on tomorrow, how about we take a long lunch and discuss somethings?" Steve asked.

"Wow, Steve McGarrett wanting to talk about things. Alright, I'm okay with that. We leave say eleven o'clock?"

"That's good," Steve answered with relief. He went home that night feeling a little better now that Cath had agreed to talk with him.

Five men stood around the truck in various states of dress. Most were at least half way through putting on their costumes but all were a little slow in finishing up.

"I don't know, brah. Maybe we should call this one off."

"It's our last big haul. We've been planning this for months and you wanna chicken out now?"

"I don't think it's chickening out, it's good sense what with Five-0's hot line and everything."

"Yeah, they said is was an awareness exercise, but we all know it's a trap to find us."

"We could distract them, call in a bomb threat or something that'll get the real SWAT deployed."

"We don't need a distraction. This is going to go just as smoothly as the other three and we'll all be living high on the hog for the rest of our lives. Now, finish gearing up."

"I don't know, brah. The Pali is so much closer to town."

"And so much more of a payoff. You want out of this? Go. No harm, no foul, but you won't get any of the cut."

"No. I'll stay."

"Good. Let's roll."

Eleven o'clock finally arrived and Steve took Catherine to a nice spot on the North Shore where he was certain they wouldn't be interrupted. He kept his phone on, turning the volume up and leaving it inside the truck. Catherine seemed to share his desire for privacy as she did the same. They would both come to regret their decisions.

The heist itself went like clockwork until an untimely passing motorist honked and sped by, waving their phone in glee. Before they knew it, they had a helicopter overhead and sirens in the distance. The driver decided to make a run for it. By the time they make it to the city proper, they've got tails. The driver panics and makes a bunch of miscellaneous turns, winding up on Leahi Ave right in front of the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind.

"Screw this! We've come this far. I'm not going to give up that easily." He pulls up on the grass, stopping in at the door to the library. "You're either with me or your dead. Which is it going to be?"

At first Arianna thinks it's a joke. Five members of Honolulu's SWAT team taking over a building seems improbable until she remembers what Steve had told her about the fake team and she realizes they're in trouble.

Phones are ringing off the hook at Five-0 headquarters. Kono is calling from the hotline, Duke is calling from the scene and Grover is calling from the real SWAT truck. Danny manages to field two of the calls and Chin the third. Putting the pieces together, Danny nearly freezes in shock.

"What's the matter?" Chin asked worriedly.

"Arianna's a teacher at the school," Danny says slowly.

"I'll call Steve," Chin offers. "You try Catherine."

When both calls go to voicemail, Danny swears. "Keep trying both of them. I'll drive."

It doesn't take long to get to the school but for Danny, it felt like an eternity. Danny being, well himself, let every possible bad scenario run through his head before he managed to shake it off and think about the good possibilities. Danny pulled up behind a patrol car, got out and took off running, waving his badge to prevent being stopped. Chin was hot on his heals.

Seeing Grover speaking to Duke, the two took a direct path towards the men.

"Danny, Chin, where's McGarrett?" Lou asked upon their arrival.

"We're still trying to get a hold of him. What we got?" Danny answered and asked.

"We've got forty-four hostages; one librarian, two teachers and forty-one students. It's the same five man team that's been pulling the heists. This last one went bad. They killed a guard and shot at the passing motorist that called it in," Grover informed them.

"How'd they make it this far into town?" Chin asked.

"Pure damn dumb luck as far as I can tell. Patrols said the driver seemed to be making a lot of random turns," Duke said.

Danny asked the next question while holding his breath and clasping his hands tightly together. "Do we have any names on the hostages?"

"Yeah. The principal is working on getting all the kids, but we have the librarian's and the teachers; Hannah Stowe, Dave Iso and Arianna McGarrett," Duke replied.

At Arianna's name, all eyes swiveled to and pinned Danny. He knew the question before it was asked. "Yes, she's related to Steve. Chin keep trying to get a hold of Steve. Shit, send out an APB on him. He's somewhere on the North Shore."

"On it," Chin said walking away to get some privacy.

"Five-0 want to take this over?" Lou asked.

"No. We can't. We have a personal relationship with one of the hostages. We're here to assist only," Danny stated firmly.

"Okaaaay then," Lou said and started barking orders to his team and HPD.

Chin made his second dial. One more and he was going to do as Danny suggested. This time the line was answered.

"McGarrett."

"Steve, it's Chin. You need to get back here. We have a hostage situation."

Steve interrupted, "Let SWAT handle it, you guys assist until we get there."

"Steve, you didn't let me finish. It's the armored car heist team and they're at Arianna's school."

Steve felt all the blood drain from his face. The buzzing in his ears prevented him from hearing the rest of Chin's statement. Forcing himself to focus he said, "Chin, I need you to repeat the last part."

"Arianna is one of the hostages."

"We're on our way. Catherine, get in the truck. I'll explain on the way," Steve snapped. The combination of fear and rage in his expression had her obeying without question.

His best bet was to hit the H2 where he'd be able to push the truck to it's limits which is exactly what he did.

Back at the school, Grover and the hostage negotiator were trying to establish contact with their hostage takers. They weren't having much luck. Grover had an idea. "Danny do you have Miss McGarrett's number? Maybe they'll answer her's assuming they've taken the cell phones."

"I got it right here," Danny said ignoring Chin's raised eyebrow. Danny hit the dial button and waited for the ring.

Inside the library, Arianna's phone vibrated and flashed from the table it had been thrown on with everyone else's.

"Who's phone is that?" one of the men demanded to know, making Hannah interpret for the whole group. He swung the phone out so the caller id was visible.

Only guessing at what the man would do if he didn't get a response, Arianna spoke up, "It's mine. It's my Uncle Danny. He's a cop and he's probably outside."

"Answer it. Tell him everything is fine and we want to speak to the person in charge out there," the man ordered.

She failed to catch the phone when he threw it at her. It bounced off her cheekbone, falling into her lap. She grabbed for it, hoping he hadn't hung up. "Hi, Uncle Danny."

"Arianna, honey, are you okay? Is anyone else hurt?"

"Everyone's okay so far. They want to talk to the person in charge."

"Okay. I'm handing over the phone now."

One of the men yanked her phone from her hand and shouted into it, "Who am I speaking to?"

"This is Captain Grover, HPD SWAT."

"Well, Captain Grover," the man sneered, "we know how this works. I tell you my demands and you appear to give in, but then you have a trick up your sleeve that works for you. Well. Not. This. Time."

Lou looked at the phone. "He hung up."

"So now what?" Duke said.

"We should have the building plans soon. We'll figure out a way to get in and get the hostages out," Lou growled.

Danny's phone pinged with a text. Grover almost handed it to it's owner until he caught the message. _They moved us to the top floor. dont send back phone not on silent yet._

"The hostages have a way to communicate with us for the moment," Lou said waving the phone around.

It pinged again. _McG says i need to keep these short so i dont get caught_

"McG? Is that the teacher?" Grover asked Danny.

"Yeah, that's what the kids call her, Miss McG."

At that moment, a HPD officer came over to their location. "Captain, we have the building plans and a list of students."

"Great, let's see if we can get into the building."

Danny's phone rang. It was Steve. Grover let him answer. "Hey, Steve, I know you want info, but you need to call back on Chin's phone. We're using mine to communicate with the hostage takers."

"Understood." Seconds later Chin's phone rang.

He handed it to Danny. "Okay, babe, here's what we know. We have five perps and forty-four hostages. I've spoke with Arianna and she's okay. They're all okay right now. Lou's looking for a way to get into the building, but they've moved everyone to the top floor. How far out are you?"

"I'm about twenty minutes out. I hope to cut that down when I reach the H2," Steve replied.

"Huh. Didn't know the Kamehameha could handle seventy. Be careful. You're no good to her if you splatter yourself all over the highway," Danny cautioned.

"I'm always careful, Danny."

"I know. See you in a few," Danny responded.

"Danny."

"I know, babe. I know."

Catherine refrained from asking any questions. She had her suspicions but they hadn't had the time for her to voice them before they'd gotten the call. She sat silently, letting Steve concentrate on driving.

Another ping from Danny's phone. _there talkn bout how they want 2 get out of here_

Another message: _phone silent now_

Lou tossed Danny his phone. "Send a message back see if the kid can get us some descriptions. Maybe we can find out who we're dealing with."

Danny handed the phone to Chin. _can u describe the bad guys_

It was a moment later when the reply came: _all wear masks try to get where i not noticed_

Minutes ticked by. _i good we in the middle of the building they nervous_

_What are they talking about now? _Chin typed.

_cant hear noone can too far away_

Chin read the message out loud as he typed his own. _Hang in there we'll get u out._

The screech of tires heralded Steve and Catherine's arrival. Steve sent Catherine over to help Kono with the relatives while he ran to meet up with Danny and Chin.

"What's the news?" he demanded.

"Nothing new. We've been corresponding with one of the students via text, but we haven't gotten anything to help us out," Lou said. "Now that you're here, you want to take over?" he offered out of courtesy.

Steve looked torn but finally said, "I can't Lou. That's my daughter in there."

"Danny said related, he didn't say daughter," Grover responded.

Another text came: _they made up demands are going to be callin_

Chin passed the phone to Grover as it was ringing. "Hello, this is Captain Grover."

"Captain Grover. We've decided what we need. We want a helicopter on the lawn in thirty minutes. It needs to be fully fueled and large enough to hold all of six of us. You can move the armored truck to make room for it. I want the whole area cleared."

"All six of you? We were under the impression that there was only five of you," Grover said hoping the guy would play along.

"You think we're stupid? We're taking a hostage with us. He or she will be released once we safely reach our destination. Thirty minutes." The line went dead.

"Alright everyone, we've got thirty minutes to figure this out. Duke get us a chopper as a contingency," Grover bellowed.

"Any chance SWAT can breach through the roof?" Steve asked.

"That's what we're looking at. I think there's a good chance that we can. Since the group is in the middle, we should be able to get in through the roof door on the east side. Chin, ask if all of the bad guys are in room," Lou responded.

Chin quickly relayed the message. He received an instant reply: _3 in room 1 casing main floor 1 this floor_

"Well, they're not dumb. They are trying to cover their bases," Danny said.

"I still think we can use the roof access with an entrance at the front door," Grover said. "You guys agree?" At everyone's nod, he continued, "Okay, let's check out the bottom floor. Steve you and your team can help with this. We'll see if we can locate our main floor guy through the windows and take him out then we'll go in through the roof. Chin keep the phone. Tell the kid to text with any changes in the positions."

Steve, Danny, Chin and HPD carefully circled around the building, placing themselves strategically along the wall while the SWAT team positioned themselves on the roof. Grover gave the go ahead to start checking the windows.

Danny was about to start when a thought crossed his mind. He clicked his com. "Lou, your team have a way of marking themselves?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Williams?" Grover barked.

"Well, our bad guys are dressed like SWAT members, ergo it's going to be mighty hard to tell the difference between them and you."

"You couldn't have thought of that sooner, Danny?" Steve asked.

"Better than later. Okay, the real SWAT team has a chalked 'X' after the 'e' on both sides of our vests. Everyone copy," Lou stated.

A chorus of yes's answered him. "Good. On my mark. Start your search."

Chin peeked over the window ledge catching movement. "The guy is coming your way, Danny. Steve will have to take the shot."

"Copy that. Okay, Steve, I've got him. Get ready. He'll be within your sight in three, two, one."

At Chin's words, Steve stood up and set himself to take the shot. At Danny's words, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The guy came into view, Steve fired. The man went down as expected. What wasn't expected is the window shattered in a million pieces.

Chin told everyone that everything was status quo with the remainder of their bad guys and the hostages. Danny and Chin pulled back to let HPD take the main floor. Walking up to Steve, they noticed he hadn't moved, weapon still aimed at the downed suspect.

"The guy on the main floor is not dead. Approach with caution. I have him covered from the window," Steve said through the coms.

"Copy that, Commander," an anonymous voice replied.

The two team members waited until Steve lowered his weapon when an officer indicated that he had the suspect covered from inside. It wasn't till he tried to holster his gun that he felt a sharp sting coming from his arm. He couldn't stop the hiss from escaping his mouth.

Danny immediately grabbed his partner's arm to assess the damage. Studying the shard of glass sticking out of Steve's right forearm Danny declared, "It doesn't look like it hit a major artery, but you are going to need stitches."

"Danny, I need to be here for Arianna," Steve argued.

"No. You need to go see an EMT," Danny started only to be cut off by gun fire coming from inside the building. "Chin, take him over to the ambulance. Steve, I'll get Arianna," Danny said already making for the front door of the building.

Steve tried to pull out of Chin's hand to follow but Chin tightened his grip. "Steve, let Danny do this. You can't help her with a piece of glass sticking out of your arm and bleeding everywhere."

Steve reluctantly let Chin guide him over to the waiting EMT, keeping an eye on the doors the whole time. More gun fire had him wincing more than the EMT pulling out the glass did. Catherine had seen the whole thing and raced over to check on him.

"Steve, you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"Yeah, just a scratch," he answered distractedly, shifting slightly to see around her to the doors.

"Commander, you need to hold still. I need to make sure there's no remaining glass in the wound," the EMT stated flatly.

"Sorry," Steve mumbled, eyes not leaving the spot.

Catherine watched Steve as the EMT checked the cut and disinfected it. Steve's gaze never wavered. Not even when the tech started to stitch him up. If Catherine had any doubts about Arianna being related in some way, they were washed away by Steve's current actions.

Back inside the crime scene, Grover and his team were ushering the fake SWAT guys out of the building while HPD helped with the hostages. Arianna and two students were escorted down the stairs to the main floor. Arianna scanned the area, yelling, "Uncle Danny!" the second she caught site of the man. She ran directly into his arms.

Gathering her in, he held her long enough to feel some of the tension leave her body. She pulled back far enough to see his lips, "Where is he?"

"He's out on the back of the ambulance," he managed to say before she tore from him, rushing towards and out the door.

Steve followed group after group coming outside. He was reading himself to go in when he spotted her. She broke into a dead run, yelling "Dad, Dad," as she covered ground. He pulled away from the EMT team as the guy was putting the last of the tape on. He caught her as she launched into him, rocking back on his feet. Holding her tight as she cried into his shoulder, he murmured words of reassurance hoping she would feel the vibration of his voice.

Catherine studied the pair in disbelief. She'd figured a relation, an unknown cousin maybe, not daughter. She spun on her heal, making for anywhere but where she was at. It took her a second to realized Danny had ahold of her arm. She stared at him with pure anger in her eyes and jerked her arm out of his grasp. She stalked away. Her head told her Steve was going to say something this morning when they were on the North Shore. Her heart told her he'd lied to her. Danny thought about following her, but Steve was talking so he turned his attention back to the group.

"Chin, will you grab Arianna's personal stuff from her room and bring her bike to my house?" Fishing a set of keys from his pocket he tossed them to Danny. "Danny will you swing by her place and grab enough stuff to make it through the weekend and drop it by?" The whole time he held his daughter close, face buried in his neck and arms so tight they almost hurt.

Both men readily agreed, quickly following through. Steve looked around for Catherine. He hadn't realized she'd moved away. Arianna's sobs had quieted down and he pulled back to see her face. "Come on. I'm taking you home to my place okay? You can stay there for a few days."

"Okay," she whispered not letting go.

Steve guided her over to where he saw Catherine and Kono still with the other hostages and their families. "Danny and Chin are wrapping up some loose ends. Kono, you can go as soon as you're comfortable. Cath, can I give you a lift?"

She wanted to say no but the look on Steve's face made her pause. He looked genuinely sorry and a bit desperate. In the end, she gave in but she told herself it was because she would've had to catch a ride with a patrol or call a cab rather than not being able to resist Steve.

Steve walked the two women over to his truck. Arianna made for the back door just as he tried to push her towards the front. Catherine watched the silent exchange of wills between the father and daughter and berated herself for being so blind.

The trio rode in silence for a while. Steve glanced in the review mirror to see Arianna playing with her phone. She looked up to catch his gaze. "It's my friends. I'm just letting them know I'm okay." Steve made the sign for 'good' without taking his hands off the wheel.

Arianna snorted, "It's not easy driving and talking with your hands. Eyes on the road please."

"Steve, why don't you drop me by HQ. I can get a head start on the paperwork," Catherine said.

Glancing in the mirror to see Arianna still buried in her texts, Steve replied,"Cath, we still need to talk. I really want to. Will you swing by the house tonight?"

Catherine sighed, "Okay, fine. I'd like to hear what you have to say."

"Good. Come for dinner, okay?" Steve pleaded.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Catherine replied.

"Maybe not, but come anyway. Arianna and I can explain things. I want you to get to know her better. She's going to be a part of our lives."

Catherine sighed resignedly, "I'll be there around six."

Steve pulled into a spot near headquarters. Cath couldn't get out of the truck fast enough. Arianna, pretending she knew nothing about what had just transpired, waited until the other woman had entered the building before she switched seats to sit next to Steve.

She didn't say anything but she did reach out to grab his right hand. It wasn't easy driving one handed, but there was no way he was going to pull it back. About halfway home, Steve noticed a slight tremor in her grip. He assessed it as shock and adrenaline crash. H pressed his foot a little closer to the floor. If Arianna was going to breakdown, he didn't want it to be on the side of the road.

By the time he pulled into the drive, she was shaking head to toe. He jumped out, rounding the front of the truck to yank the door open. He pulled her out into his arms. Steve wasn't prepared to take her full weight when she collapsed so they both ended up on the ground in an awkward embrace. The roar of a motorbike caught his attention. Chin walked towards them, taking stock of the situation. He grabbed the keys Steve had dropped and jogged to the house. Hew was back with a liquid concoction they coaxed Arianna to drink. Between the two men, they managed to get all three of them into the house.


	26. Chapter 26

Danny let himself into Arianna's house, making note that she hadn't installed the security system component Steve'd suggested. That wasn't the only thing he noticed. As he perused the room, he picked up on several details: all the electronic equipment was unplugged, the cable box was gone and the air conditioning wasn't running even though the place was shut up tight.

He opened the bedroom door to find an air mattress on the floor, the bed frame in pieces against the wall. Danny picked up a large duffle from the closet and quickly filled it without thinking too much about what he was touching. In the bathroom, he was just as quick because there wasn't any extras. Danny hesitated briefly before snooping in the kitchen. It was worse than feared. The fridge was the only appliance plugged in. It held some fruits and vegetables Danny knew for a fact had come from the farmer's market and the freezer contained several hand labelled packages of fish. The cupboards were empty except for a large bag of rice and several ramen packets. Danny's only decision now was wether to give Arianna a chance to explain or go right to Steve. He had the short distance between the houses to make up his mind.

Danny found Steve and Chin on the lanai with glasses of ice tea. He slunk iont an empty chair and drank deeply from the glass Chin handed to him. "How's Arianna?"

"She crashed pretty hard. I put her in Mary's room," Steve replied. "You get her stuff okay? I didn't think to get you the security code."

"Yeah, about that, uh, there wasn't a need for it," Danny hedged.

"She didn't have it turned on?" Steve asked.

"She doesn't have a system," Danny answered.

"What? I thought she was going to put one in with the other system," Steve said, confused.

"There's more to it, Steve," Danny said.

"What do you mean more?"

Danny told his friends everything he'd see. When he finished his narrative, he sate back to let Steve process the information. A noise from the house startled the three men. Arianna stood in the doorway wringing her hands.

Danny was the first to speak, "Arianna, I'm sorry. I had to tell him." Standing up, he grasped her arm briefly before letting go and waving to Chin. "Come on. We need to get back to work."

Steve waited till Arianna sat down across from him before he leveled his gaze on her. He was determined to wait her out. She was equally determined not to give into the pressure. Not sure how long they sat in silence, Arianna signed, "I said I'd try, I didn't say I'd be very good at it."

Going straight for the jugular, Steve asked, "Are you broke?"

"Money is tight right now," she replied.

"Why?"

"I used most of my savings to get here and have my stuff shipped," she said simply.

"Didn't your mom leave you anything? What about your job?"

"Mom? Yeah, she left me with too many bills and not enough money to pay for them. As far as the job, they pay us once a month and I haven't hit the first paycheck yet."

Okay, if tidbits was the way she was going to play it, he'd drag the information out of her. "What about that conversation with the accountant or lawyer you had a while back?"

"That was about Mom's portion of my grandparents estate," she said succinctly. Steve stared, daring her to stop there. "The bulk of their estate went to me for college and the like while a quarter went into a trust for Mom to take care of her when she got older. If by some weird circumstance she didn't make it to sixty-five, the money comes to me. I'm having some difficulties straightening it out."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked looking hurt and angry.

Arianna didn't answer right away. Eventually she said, "You need to see it from my perspective. I've consciously made the choice to move back to one of the most expensive places on the planet to live, I choose to ship a motorbike across an ocean and I've just met my father for the first time in my twenty years of existence. What better circumstances to scream opportunistic gold digger can you get?"

Steve mulled over her statement. "Okay, I can see your point. I'm sorry I got so angry but now that it's out in the open, will you let me help?"

Arianna was determined not to cry. This was not how she envisioned getting to know her father. Finally, she slowly nodded. "There will be rules."

"I don't think you are in the position to dictate, young lady. I'm going to buy you some groceries and I'm going to help you straighten out the legal mess. Got it?"

"Yes, Father Dearest."

"Good. Now you look like you're ready to collapse. Go lay down and I'll get you up in time to help me fix dinner. Cath is coming over. You and I have some explaining to do," Steve declared.

Arianna rolled her eyes at him as she obeyed. Steve listened for the snick of the door and when he got a slam instead, he couldn't help but laugh. Ahhh, the teenage years that he apparently wasn't going to miss out on. He couldn't help but recall Danny's statement about the apple not falling far from the tree. It seems that McGarrett genes run strong.

Steve puttered around, picking up and straightening to kill time until he needed to get the food started. He would forever deny checking on his kid three times. He did think about going for a swim but he didn't want to leave Arianna alone incase she needed him.

As promised, he woke her up in plenty of time to help him. They fell into an easy pattern, Steve pulling out all the ingredients, Arianna chopping and him assembling. They were working so well together, they didn't notice Catherine watching.

Catherine stood on the porch for a good ten minutes, debating wether to knock or not. In the end she used the key still had to let herself in. She followed the noises to the kitchen. Watching the father daughter pair work so efficiently together, she couldn't help but wonder how much time the two had spent together over the last six weeks. She almost felt guilty about disrupting the harmony but then she remembered why she was here.

"Hi guys, something smells good," she said to announce her presence.

Steve jumped, causing him to bump into Arianna who in turn dropped the container she was holding onto the counter which led to the pair being showered with Tzatziki sauce. Catherine laughed at their shocked faces until she got a sauce covered towel to the face. It was Steve and Arianna's turn to laugh.

"Okay, since it doesn't take too long to grill the meat, why don't we clean ourselves up in the ocean," Arianna suggested.

Steve was about to protest when another blob of sauce hit his face. Cath barely had time to get out of the way as the younger woman went flying by. Steve shot her an apologetic, might as well join the crazy look as he grabbed her hand giving chase. Catherine reluctantly let herself be drawn to the ocean.

Arianna stripped down to her suit as she ran "Come on slow poke. I thought you were a might SEAL. I think I'm going to be forced to call you my old man," she taunted.

The three had a good time splashing around trying to dunk each other. Catherine found herself relaxing as she joined forces with Arianna to take Steve down no less than five times. Steve hated to call an end to the fun and games, but they needed to get dinner on before it got too late and they still had a conversation that needed to take place.

"Okay, water baby, it's time to feed our guest," he signed. "You get to make more sauce."

As they waded out, Catherine turned to Steve, "You've gotten really good at signing."

"I had a great motivator," he replied sheepishly.

"I like her, Steve, I do but."

"We still need to talk. I know," he interrupted, "and we will over dinner. I promise."

Steve an Arianna put the meal on with the same quiet efficiency as they had prepared it and they were soon enjoying gyros and homemade chips.

"I need to apologized to you, Catherine," Arianna said. "I convinced Dad to keep things between us. It was purely selfish reasons. I didn't ever consider how it would affect the other people in his life."

"Wow! I didn't expect that," Catherine said.

Arianna frowned, thinking she'd read the woman's lips wrong. She looked to Steve to translate. When he did, she asked, "May I have an explanation?"

Catherine blinked. She hadn't expected to be the one put on the spot. "I guess I didn't expect you to be honest."

"I don't lie, Miss Rollins," Arianna retorted.

"Cath, that was uncalled for, " Steve said angrily.

"I disagree. You've both been lying to me from day one; a daughter of an old friend."

"She is the daughter of an old friend. She happens to be my daughter too. Just because we didn't tell you everything, doesn't mean what we did say was lies," Steve continued.

"Okay, maybe I was a little out of line, but you need to see it from my perspective," Catherine countered.

"Fair point. I apologize too. At first we wanted to verify the DNA and then we wanted to get to know each other without any pressure. Make sure, you know," he said.

"So who's your mother?" Cath asked Arianna.

"Jenny Feldman is my mom," Arianna replied.

"Why do I know that name?" Cath asked, looking to Steve.

"Do you remember Halloween and _Chucky_?" Steve prompted.

"Seriously, that Jenny Feldman? I thought that was like a one off for you," she stated.

"We actually dated up until my dad shipped us to the mainland," Steve whispered.

"My mom never planned to tell him. His moving made things easy for her," Arianna said, rejoining the conversation.

"You didn't tell me that," Steve said.

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"Thank you."

"So is there more I need to know?" Catherine asked.

"No. The only part we hid was the true nature of our relationship," Arianna said. "I'm going to clean this up real quick and then leave you two alone." With that, she loaded up the tray with their debris and went to the kitchen.

"Shouldn't you go help her so things get put away correctly?" Catherine questioned.

"She actually knows where everything goes. Arianna, Danny and Grace stayed the weekend here while you were doing your two weeks," Steve told her. "She played nursemaid for us with the whole antibiotic bad reaction thing."

When Cath gave him a confused look, Steve remembered that he hadn't had the chance to tell her about that case. He filled her in, giving Danny's version. He took it as a good sign when she laughed. They continued to talk, filling in the gaps from the past weeks. At one point, Arianna stuck her head out to say goodnight. Catherine stayed only an hour longer before excusing herself. Steve knew that all wasn't right between them yet but if they worked at it, they might make it through.

Steve checked in on Arianna to find her sound asleep, sprawled in the middle of the bed with the blankets on the floor. What surprised him was she was wearing one of his old navy t-shirts and a pair of his shorts. He straightened out the covers and dropped a kiss on her forehead. Going back to the living room, he called Danny for an update and to let his partner know that unless there was an emergency, he wouldn't be in till Monday. They shot the breeze for a few moments, but it soon became awkward avoiding all of Danny's unasked questions so they ended the call. Steve tried to get some work done, but he couldn't concentrate so he ended up staring aimlessly at some lame TV. program until he was tired enough to sleep.

He checked on Arianna one last time before he went upstairs. She was still out cold. As he crawled under the covers, a folded piece of paper on the nightstand caught his eye. Leaning back against the pillows, he opened it so he could read it. _Dad, normally I wouldn't go through someone else's dresser drawers, but for all of his attention to detail, Uncle Danny didn't bring my sleepwear over. I would've asked before borrowing a shirt and shorts, but you were busy. Sorry. See you in the morning. P.S. Who organizes they're sock drawer by style and then color? It's so very, very wrong._

Steve turned out the light, chuckling.


	27. Chapter 27

Mary crept into her brother's house. Joan was sleeping peacefully in her car seat and after the last couple of days, the last thing she wanted to do was wake the baby. She opened the bedroom door intent upon putting Joan down in the portable crib she'd stashed there and catching a few winks herself, only to find the room occupied.

Arianna had barely returned from the bathroom and was debating on whether she should get up or climb back in bed when a woman with an infant seat stepped into the room. It took her a second to connect the dots. "You must be Mary."

"Um, yeah and who the hell are you?" Mary asked. "Oh, God! Please don't tell your my brother's booty call."

Arianna smiled. "I didn't catch all that you said, I'm deaf. I can read lips but you covered your mouth for some of the words."

"Oh, God! I'm so sorry," Mary apologized.

"It's okay. I'm Arianna and from the pictures I've seen, you must be Mary."

"Yeah. Um, is it okay if I put Joan down in here? Are you still sleeping? Oh, this is embarrassing," Mary stammered.

"How about this. You put Joan down and then join me in the kitchen. I'll explain everything over a cup of coffee or at least I'll try to," Arianna suggested.

"That's sounds like a good idea. This outta be good," Mary replied.

Arianna made her way to the kitchen so she could follow through with her idea. She thought about waking Steve, but she knew that he'd stayed up late and she wanted to let him sleep. She could handle this. Conquering the technical wonder that was her father's coffee maker, she explored the fridge for something for breakfast. Mary joined her as the coffee finished brewing.

"Want a cup?" Arianna asked waving towards the machine.

"Sure, why not," Mary replied opening up a cupboard. When she closed it she saw that Arianna hadn't moved to pour a second cup. "Oh, man. I did it again. You need to see my lips to read them right?"

"Yep. That's how lip reading works," Arianna teased. "Don't worry about it though. It usually takes time for most people to get in the habit. Dad has to actively think about it sometimes no matter what he might say if you asked."

"Who's dad?" Mary questioned.

"That's right. I should probably wait for Steve," Arianna hemmed.

"You said you'd explain, so explain," Mary insisted.

"Okay. Dad is Steve," Arianna said simply.

Mary froze. There's no way she'd heard the other girl correctly. "I'm sorry, but did you say that Steve, my brother, Steve is a dad, specifically your dad?" she choked out.

"Yes."

"Wow! Wow, and he gives me shit about not being in control of my life. How old are you exactly?" Mary pounced.

"I'm twenty," Arianna replied.

"Well, don't even think about calling me Aunt Mary. I'm too damn young to have a niece of twenty calling me aunt," Mary ordered, taking a large gulp of her coffee.

"Okay. No Aunt Mary. Got it."

"I need to sit down," Mary declared. "Steve, my brother, has a grown daughter. Mom is going to have a cow when she finds out. Well, if she ever finds out."

"Hey, I make some mean pancakes. You want some?" Arianna asked hoping to shake Mary out of her stupor.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Mary replied, studying her. "You look like our family. Who's your mom? No. Wait. I think I already know. Jenny Feldman, right?"

"Yep." Arianna turned away to start fixing the pancakes, leaving Mary to continue digesting the news.

Mary noticed the ease Arianna had in the kitchen with interest. Exactly how long had Steve been keeping this secret? She still had a hard time finding stuff and she'd lived here. Jeez, Steve had a daughter! Mary was an aunt! Oh, he was going to get so much crap over this.

Arianna finished her prep work and turned to Mary. "Okay, spill. What was he like as a kid?"

Mary grinned. She had a compatriot, a sister-in-arms. "You and I are going to get along great. Let's see, where to start?"

The smell of pancakes infiltrated his nostrils. Steve cracked on bleary eye to glare at the clock, oh, five-thirty. What the hell? It was too early even for him and was that a baby he heard? Mary and Joan! Right! Listening intently now, he could hear two voices. Great, his sister and daughter have met without him there to run interference. He briefly pondered his chances of sneaking out before throwing on some clothes and going down to face the music.

The identical evil grins he received when he entered the kitchen told him everything he needed to know. He was doomed. "Morning Mare, you're here awfully early," he greeted his sister with a quick side hug as he went for a mug of coffee.

"Yeah, we were flying stand-by and managed to catch the red-eye," she answered.

Taking a fortifying sip of coffee, he dropped a kiss on Arianna's head before saying, "Good morning, kamali'i wahine. You sleep well?"

Mary sat in awe. "What's all that?" she asked pointing to Steve's hands.

"What's what, Mary?" Steve asked.

"All the hand waving? You been around Danny too long?" Mary clarified.

"It's sign language," Steve said, the 'duh' loudly implied.

"Sign language," she repeated dumbly.

"Yes. Even though I'm pretty good at reading lips, I still sign because it is so easy to misunderstand some people," Arianna said trying to be helpful.

"Oh. That makes sense," Mary decided. "How'd you get so good at it?" she asked her brother.

"He seems to have a knack for it. Maybe it's all those crazy hand signals Uncle Danny told me he used in the navy and tries to get Five-0 to understand," Arianna answered for Steve.

"At least you remember which branch of the military I'm in," Steve grumbled.

Arianna patted his shoulder. "He only teases you out of love, Dad. You know that. Want some pancakes?"

They'd barely finished their breakfast when Joan woke up screaming. "Sorry, she's teething," Mary explained running to pick up the upset child.

"I got a text last night from the principal. The school is closed till Monday. They want to have time to find counselors and repair the damages so the kids won't be reminded," Arianna announced.

"That's probably a good thing. How are you dealing?" Steve asked concerned.

"I'm doing okay. I had one nightmare but I didn't wake up from it," she said.

"You'll let me know if you're having issues?" Steve asked.

"I'll let you know," she promised. "I figure I'll wash up the breakfast dishes and be on my way. Thanks for the loaner pj's by the way."

"What do you mean 'be on your way'? I thought you were going to stay through the weekend," Steve questioned.

"That was the original plan, but now that Mary's here with Joan, it's a little crowded," Arianna answered.

"Four people lived full time in this house at one time," Steve declared.

"Yes, but two of those people slept in the same bedroom," she pointed out.

"I'll put Mary and the baby in my room and I can sack out in the recliner for a couple of nights," Steve said.

"Ah. You're willing to sacrifice your bed for your baby sister. Isn't that sweet," Mary cooed as she returned with Joan in her arms.

"It's not that big of a deal. It's not like I haven't slept in the recliner before. It's quite comfortable," Steve informed them.

"Okay, fine. I'll stay, but if I hear on comment about your back hurting, I'm headed home," Arianna announced.

Mary fed Joan while Steve helped Arianna clean up breakfast. They were talking plans for the day when Steve's phone rang from the living room. He excused himself.

"So, why has my brother kidnapped you to his house?" Mary asked.

"He's being protective. There was an incident yesterday at the school I work at," Arianna dodged.

"You work at a school. That's cool. What do you do? You like a librarian or an aide or something?"

"I'm a teacher."

"No offense, but aren't you a little young to be a teacher?" Mary said, being totally offensive.

"I graduated early," Arianna explained.

"Wow! Must run in the family. Steve was in intelligence before he got his flippers," Mary exclaimed.

"Sorry, did you say his flippers?"

"She means before I trained to be a SEAL," Steve clarified, rejoining them. "Mary, you need to pay attention to some of your descriptions. They don't translate well. I've got some bad news. That was the governor. He's called a meeting for this morning at ten and knowing him, it'll run through lunch time. Think you can handle being together for a while?"

"We'll be fine. The three of us can have some girl bonding time. Maybe go shopping," Mary said.

Steve turned his gaze to Arianna. "We'll find something to do. Don't worry."

"Alright. I've got enough time to grab a shower so I'll leave you to make your plans."

Mary looked excited. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. I'm not really a shopper."

"Oh, okay then. We'll figure something out," Mary said disappointedly.

By the time Steve left and the two woman had taken their showers and got ready for the day, it was time for Joan's morning nap. Mary decided to join her as she hadn't slept much on the plane. Arianna found she couldn't stand being inside even though she'd showered, she decided to go for a run. Danny may not have managed to get her pj's but he did grab her running shoes. Men are weird. Penning a quick note for Mary, she set off.

She didn't pay attention to her direction, she simply ran, trying to get over the feeling of claustrophobia that had nearly overwhelmed her back at the house. She covered mile after mile, the claustrophobia turning into anxiety and panic. She ran until she couldn't run any more, dropping to the lawn in front of some building she couldn't recognize right now.

Kono was just getting to the punchline of a joke as they exited the palace when a woman collapsing at the edge of the lawn caught Chin's attention. "Hey, isn't that Arianna?" he shouted, running towards the girl.

Danny immediately took off after him. Chin came to an abrupt halt in front of the kneeling girl. He wasn't sure how to get her attention without scaring more than she already seemed. Danny dropped to the ground next to her, slowly moving his hand towards her sightline. When she finally noticed him, she flung herself into his arms holding on tight. Neither paid attention to the passing time as she tried to get her emotions under control. At one point, Kono draped a light blanket over them. Danny arranged it so Arianna was tucked into it, but had enough room to move.

Finally Arianna showed signs of being in control again. Danny eased her back a little so she could see his mouth. "Do you think you can make it into the building?"

When she nodded shakily, he took it as a win. Chin and Kono helped them off the ground and back into HQ. Catherine silently observed the whole incident, doing nothing to aide them. Danny guided Arianna to the couch in Steve's office. Settling her in, he turned to Chin. "Hey, why don't you pour her a little of that Scotch Steve's got stashed in the bottom drawer."

"Danny, she's underage," Catherine stated, finally participating in the crisis.

"I think this can be considered an emergency situation," Chin stated doing as Danny asked.

"I tried Steve, but it goes to voicemail," Kono said.

"He's with the governor. He always has his phone on silent during those meetings. Did you leave a message?" Danny asked.

"Of course."

"Good. He'll be here as soon as he can. Meanwhile I think we can handle this." Taking the tumbler of liquor Chin held out, Danny coaxed Arianna to sip at it.

"Damn! That stuff is nasty," Arianna coughed out.

"It got a reaction, which is what we wanted," Danny informed her. "Besides, it's an acquired taste. Now take another sip." He ignored her eye-roll as he tipped the glass to her mouth again.

She dutifully swallowed a little more, managing not to cough it back in his face. "That's enough, please," she pleaded.

Danny handed the glass back to Chin. "You want to tell us what happened?"

Her face changed to show complete confusion. "I don't really know. Mary went to take a nap with Joan and all of a sudden the walls started closing in so I decided to go for a run. I set out and the next thing I really know is that I'm sitting on damp grass being rocked in your arms."

"Sounds like you had a panic attack," Chin said gently, getting Danny to sign for him. "It's not uncommon after going through an emotional event like yesterday."

"Whatever it was, I really don't want to do it again. I don't know how I even made it here," Arianna exclaimed.

"Instinct," Kono said. "You automatically went to some place where you knew you'd be safe."

Arianna nodded didn't say anything. She suddenly felt really tired and couldn't hide the yawn that threatened to engulf her face.

"Why don't you lie down here and take a nap why you wait for Steve," Danny suggested already helping to rearrange herself on the couch.

Arianna eyes were at half mast when she tugged on his pant leg. "Thanks, Uncle Danny. Sorry about your pants."

Danny didn't bother to reply as her breath had already evened out indicating sleep.

Catherine pounced the minute they were all in the main room. "Uncle Danny?"

Danny flushed. "Yeah. What's wrong with it. Grace calls Steve uncle. The whole island thing you know."

"Isn't it a little familiar? She hardly knows you," Catherine continued.

"I don't have a problem with it," Danny said, not rising to the bait. "I'll work in Steve's office to keep an eye on her till Steve gets here." With that he did just as he said, slipping quietly back into his partner's office.

Catherine turned to Kono. "Don't you think it's a bit odd?"

"Not really," the younger woman said. "I mean she's babysat Grace and they even went to the zoo together. Grace couldn't stop talking about it."

"I see," Catherine said flatly. She abruptly left for her own office.

"Why do I get the feeling Steve didn't tell her that you and Danny knew the whole story about Arianna some time ago?" Kono questioned Chin.

"I get the same feeling, cuz. I really don't want to be around for the fall out. Now let's get some work done," Chin said.

Steve came rushing in about an hour later to see Kono at the tech table. "Where is she? Is she safe?" he demanded, frantically scanning the offices.

"Stand down, soldier. She's asleep on your couch," Danny whispered from the doorway.

Steve immediately made his way to his slumbering daughter, kissing her forehead and pulling the blanket up around her shoulders. Two very sleepy hazel eyes peered at him from beneath long lashes, "Hi, Daddy."

"Hey, kamali'i wahine, I hear you had a rough morning," he said.

"Kinda of. Uncle Chin said it was a panic attack."

"It probably was. You ready to wake up?"

"Yeah," she said already pushing herself into a sitting position. "May I have some water?"

"Sure," Steve said grabbing a bottle from his mini fridge. He noticed his bottom drawer wasn't completely closed. Handing the bottle to Arianna he asked, "Is that alcohol I smell on your breath?"

"That's my doing, Steve," Danny said. "She needed some fortification. If it's any consolation, she only took two sips."

"We'll discuss giving my underage daughter alcohol later, Daniel."

"I'm sitting right here," Arianna said bringing their attention back to her. "Trust me, I won't be imbibing anytime soon if that's what the stuff tastes like."

"Good. You ready to go home?"

"Yeah."

"Can you wait a few minutes while I talk to Catherine?" he asked.

"Not a problem. I'll make use of the bathroom while you do."

Steve knocked lightly on Catherine's door. He barely heard her, "Come in."

"Hey Cath, thanks for helping with Arianna."

"I didn't do much," she admitted truthfully.

"I'm sure you did what you could so thank you. You doing okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Still processing," she replied.

"Is there any, well, can I do any..."

"No, Steve, it's going to take some time, okay?"

"I can accept that. I know we still have a lot to talk about and I still have some things to tell you. You're still coming to the barbecue tomorrow night right?"

"I'll be there," she assured.

"Maybe you could come early so we can talk some more?"

"I can do that."

"Good. I'll see you then." Kissing her quickly on the cheek, he left before he could see the glint of tears in her eyes.

Steve got everyone else's promises to be at the barbecue Friday night and led Arianna out into the bright Hawaiian sunshine.

"How about I call Mary and see if she's had lunch. We can pick something up on the way home?" Steve said.

"That sounds good. I'm kind of hungry," Arianna responded.

"Did you run all the way here from my place?" Steve asked in awe.

"I must have, but I don't remember doing it."

"Are those counselors going to be for the adults too?" Steve questioned.

"They are," she confirmed, "and before you say it, I'm already making plans to speak with one. I don't want to go through this morning again."

"Smart girl. Now let me call Mary," Steve said with pride.

Turned out that Mary had already ate lunch so Steve ended up pulling up to Kamekona's. The pair sat eating their shrimp plates, chatting about this and that. Steve confirmed the big guy's attendance Friday night as they threw away their garbage. Kamekona offered to bring shrimp. Arianna accepted the offer for the both of them. She admitted to being addicted to the garlic shrimp.

When they got back to Steve's, they decided they'd take it easy the rest of the day. Arianna enjoyed playing with Joan at the edge of the ocean and Mary enjoyed relaxing and letting someone else take the lead for a while. Steve prepped some meat for supper and then joined his daughter and niece in the water. Joan tired quickly. Mary took her in for another nap. Steve and Arianna swam and goofed off in the water. Mary came back out to watch the pair frolic in the waves. She hadn't seen Steve this carefree in a long time. She'd always known he'd make a good father. Trust the lucky jerk to manage to skip all the diapers and teething tantrums. Mary decided to make sure he got his fill with Joan.

Steve assigned Friday as grocery shopping day and he dragged both women and baby with him. He settled Joan and her car seat in one cart for Mary, pushed another one into Arianna's hands and pulled one out for himself. With a self satisfied grin he made for the first aisle.

"Wait just a minute," Arianna called out. "Would you mind telling me why we need two shopping carts. Exactly how many people did you invite to this shindig? I thought it was potluck."

Still grinning, Steve replied, "One is for the party and the other is to stock your pantry."

Arianna made a face, starting to argue, but Steve put his hand up to forestall her. "We've been through this. I don't like to grocery shop so we will be doing this in one stop. There's plenty of time to drop stuff at your place and still make it back in time to get ready but only if you stop stalling."

Arianna grumbled under her breath, Steve grinned like a loon and Mary decided she liked it when her brother's overprotectiveness was aimed at someone else. She trailed after the pair as the attacked the store like it was a covert op. Arianna only tried once to put an item back on shelves. Mary chuckled at Steve's reaction. It was the best shopping trip she'd ever been on.

They drove to Arianna's to drop off the groceries Steve had purchased. Mary opted to stay in the truck with a snoozing Joan while they unloaded and put away everything.

Steve surveyed the kitchen with a critical eye. It was as spotless as the day they'd finished scrubbing it. The only indication that it was used were the dishes still in the drainer. The empty cupboards and fridge said volumes though.

Arianna put everything away and turned to study her dad. "It's not that bad."

"I didn't say anything," Steve protested.

"You didn't have to, your face did."

"Arianna, I hate the thought of you going hungry when I can do something about it."

"I know and again I'm sorry. I promise to share from now on."

"Good," Steve signed. "Hey, you wanna take a minute to grab your pj's? Not that I mind you wearing my old stuff, but those shorts look liked they were going to fall off if you moved just right," Steve said to defuse the tension.

"Yeah, I should. I'll be right back."

Getting back to Steve's, Mary put Joan down and then the three set about getting ready for the get together. Arianna took the time to share with Mary several easy recipes as well show her some time saving short cuts in the kitchen. She also tried her hardest to convince the new mother that it was easier and cheaper to make all of Joan's baby food. Steve gave the house a good once over then pitched in his help with the food. It was like they'd always been a family; brother, sister and daughters.

They had everything in hand to the point where they could sit back and enjoy their friends. Danny and Grace arrived first like always. The others trickled in over a half hour. Catherine didn't make it early, but she wasn't the last to show.

All the food had been put out on the lanai so people could mingle and still be able to fill their plates. When everyone had been through the serving line, Steve finished manning the grill, snagged his own plate and sought out Catherine. He found her leaning against a post watching Arianna with Grace, Joan, Mary and Sabrina.

"Hey, Rollins, you doing okay?"

"Yeah," she replied. "When did you tell Danny?"

"I didn't tell Danny," Steve said not even trying to pretend he didn't know what she was referring to.

"Grace is too comfortable with Arianna for them not to have known each other for a while," Catherine observed.

"Danny guessed because he ease dropped the day Arianna came to the offices," Steve admitted.

"So he's known from the beginning. What about Chin? He know from then too?"

"No. Chin found out when Arianna ripped me a new one for getting hurt on the Davis case. She didn't know he was there when she started yelling."

"Any one else know before me?" she asked calmly.

"No. I think Kono had her suspicions, but she never came to me with them," Steve said. "Cath, I never meant to hurt you with this. I did't want to spook Arianna and she wasn't comfortable telling people yet. Danny and Chin finding out were accidents. They wouldn't have known otherwise. I almost lost my chance to with her when they found out."

"Steve, you should have told me," she said.

"Cath, I.."

"Save it. I'm going home now. I'll see you in the office on Monday," she stated.

"Cath, can't we discuss this?" Steve begged holding on to her arm.

"Not right now. I need some time," she whispered. He didn't try to stop her this time.

Catherine walked through the house to pick up her purse and make a quiet exit. She was surprised to find Mary standing near the front door.

"I've spent most of the last two days with them. I let them have their say," Mary started.

"Mary, I'm tired and this isn't the time," Catherine said to distract her.

"It may not be, but before you completely write Steve off, you need to remember that it wasn't just his secret to keep. Arianna had her reasons too, maybe you need to take the time to listen to them," Mary said.

"And how do you know I didn't?" Catherine asked.

"I don't. I can only guess," Mary admitted.

"Good night, Mary," Catherine wished as she walked out.

Steve leaned against the wall between the study and living room. He'd wanted to say something, anything to keep Catherine from leaving, but he didn't have the words. Mary surprised him by saying what he was feeling.

Mary caught him staring. "Sorry if I overstepped my bounds."

"You didn't. Come here." Steve wrapped her in a hug. "Thank you."

"Are things over with you and Catherine?"

"I don't know. I can't undo this and I can't honestly say if I'd known the outcome I would have done things differently," he admitted.

"Well whatever happens, know I'm here for you, big brother. Me and Joan and Arianna," Mary declared.

Laughter from the lanai pulled the brother and sister back to their friends. Steve stood to the side taking in the scene of ohana before him. He had a feeling he was coming to the end of another chapter in his life while simultaneously starting a new storyline. While Arianna hadn't been the cause of his problems with Catherine, the way he'd handled the situation hadn't help them either. And. He. Knew. That. He wanted to cement a relationship with his daughter in order to cover up the pain he knew was coming when Catherine inevitably left him. One didn't make up for the other, but it would help. He made his way over to Arianna's side to sit with her.

She reached around him and gave him a warm hug.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"You look like you needed it," she replied simply.


End file.
